Archibald wins European gold with individual pursuit defence

Archibald wins European gold with individual pursuit defence

Navigation:
Home

Katie Archibald took a sensational gold for the Great Britain Cycling Team as she defended her European individual pursuit title in style in Berlin.

The 23-year-old defeated Poland’s Justyna Kaczkowska in the final to add gold to her team pursuit silver medal at the UEC European Track Championships.

Archibald, who now has 11 European medals, had set a personal best time of 3:28.003 in the Velodrom to qualify fastest.

Kaczkowska started well in the final and led after 1000m but at the two-kilometre mark Archibald was fastest and completed the race in 3:29.328 to win by over three seconds. 

"Today I've had all the wins. I've beaten myself, I've beaten everyone else. I’ll sleep happy,” Archibald said.

“I went into qualifying with modest ambition, and suddenly by the time the final came around we are back to having high expectations and I thought ‘it’s all going to go wrong’.

“We have our coaches in the last kilometre telling you whether you’re up or down and I think if you’re down your head goes, and I think that’s what happened to her. I’ve been in that position myself so it’s nice to be on this side of it.”

World champion Elinor Barker was able to wear her world champion’s rainbow jersey in the points race but was forced to settle for eighth as Trine Schmidt won the title.

Team pursuit Olympic champion Barker took points in three of the sprints,  but having missed an early lap gain was left to try and ignite an attack over the 100-lap race.

Barker finished on 10 points with Schmidt on 62 points, 31 clear of Gulnaz Badykova in second.

In the men’s sprint, both Phil Hindes and Ryan Owens exited in the 1/8 finals. Hindes, who had qualified in 12th, was beaten by Ukrainian Andril Vynokurov, having defeated Jose Moreno Sanchez in his 1/16 final.

Owens, who qualified in 14th, saw off Luca Ceci of Italy in the 1/16 finals but was knocked out by world champion Denis Dmitriev, despite pushing the Russian close. 

Chris Latham ended the four-event men’s omnium in 16th.

Eighth, 18th and 16th in the scratch, tempo and elimination races respectively left Latham in 16th on 42 points heading into the points race, where his total and position remained the same.

Katy Marchant was sixth in the 500m time trial with Sophie Capewell 12th as Miriam Welte took gold. Kian Emadi was 18th in the elimination race, won by Gerben Thijssen of Belgium.

How to follow the championships

  • Live blog each day on the British Cycling website.
  • Updates on British Cycling’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
  • Daily report will appear on the British Cycling website.
  • Live coverage of medal sessions on Eurosport 2 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with highlights of the final day of racing on Eurosport 1 on Sunday.