Great Britain took their first medal in the 2015 UEC Under-23 and Junior European Track Championships in Athens with a convincing win in the minor final of the men’s junior team sprint to earn them a bronze medal and a place on the podium.
The trio of of Jack Carlin, Alex Joliffe and Jo Truman had placed fourth in qualifying with a time of 46.162 earning them a place in the ride off for bronze against the French team who were 0.243 seconds quicker over the 750m distance.
The British trio turned the tables on their French counterparts in the final, however, finishing 0.162 seconds ahead of them after three laps.
Great first day at Euros with the lads taking bronze in the Team Sprint pic.twitter.com/ZdbadYR9bn
— Joe Truman (@JoeTCycling) July 14, 2015
In the men’s under-23 individual pursuit, Mark Stewart finished in seventh place overall in a time of 4.27.089 seconds. Great Britain’s Jake Kelly crossed the line in 15th with a time of 4:33.184 seconds.
In the women’s junior individual pursuit (held over eight laps of the track), Great Britain’s Abigail Dentus recorded a time of 2:29.228 placing her eighth overall with Grace Garner finishing in 15th with a time of 2:32.047.
Great Britain’s Joe Holt, Matthew Bostock, Ethan Hayter and Reece Wood narrowly missed out on a place in the men’s junior team pursuit finals when they clocked 4:11.680 to place them fifth overall.
The British quartet missed out on another ride by just over seven tenth of a second placing fifth with only the top four to continue on to the evening finals.
Bronze in the team sprint at European champs!!pic.twitter.com/CllRPrcZMX
— Jack Carlin (@jack_carlin97) July 14, 2015
Day one also saw the start of the women’s junior individual sprint competition. Great Britain’s sole representation came from Sophie Capewell who qualified in sixth place with a 200m time of 11.799.
Capewell won her first round heat comfortably against Czech Republic rider Ema Kankovska and went on to beat Russia’s Kseniya Bogoyavlenskaya 2-1 in the quarter finals. Capewell will now face Pauline Grabosh of Germany in tomorrow’s semis.
The final event of the evening for Great Britain was the men’s under-23 kilometre time trial. Jonathan Mitchell crossed the line in 1:03.552 seconds and Thomas Scammell in 1:05.221 placing them eighth and 12th respectively.
The competition continues tomorrow from 7:30am UK time with the conclusion of the women’s junior sprint as well as the under-23 men’s team sprint, under-23 women’s individual pursuit, under-23 women’s team sprint, under-23 men’s team pursuit, junior men’s kilo, junior women’s team pursuit, junior men’s individual pursuit, junior men’s sprint.
