Gold rush for Great Britain Cycling Team at the 2016 UEC Track Juniors and U23 European Championships

Gold rush for Great Britain Cycling Team at the 2016 UEC Track Juniors and U23 European Championships

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Great Britain Cycling Team claimed two more European gold medals on the second day of competition at the 2016 UEC Track Juniors and U23 European Championships in Italy.

The under-23 team sprint line-up of Jack Carlin, Joe Truman and Olympic reserve rider Ryan Owens powered their way to gold.

Moments later, the under-23 team pursuit quartet of Emily Kay, Dannielle Khan, Manon Lloyd and Emily Nelson dominated over 16 laps to claim the second European title for Great Britain of the day.

Sprint

In qualifying, the trio of Carlin, Owens and Truman were more than half a second faster than their nearest rivals, posting a time of 43.930 to book a gold medal ride against the Czech Republic.

In the final, the young sprinters went sub-44 seconds for a second time as they beat their Czech opponents by more than half a second once more.

Rio-bound Owens said:

“Never expected that twelve months. These guys are two of my best mates and I couldn't ask for better people to share it with.”

Team pursuit

In qualifying, Kay, Khan, Lloyd and Nelson blew the opposition away, posting a time of 4:25.966, just under four seconds faster than second placed team Italy.

Under-23 women team pursuit squad win European gold

The two nations went head-to-head in the final, where the Great Britain Cycling Team quartet found even more time.

They caught and passed the Italians within 3000 metres to take the gold, before continuing to set a time of 4:24.386.

Emily Kay said they were thrilled with their performance:

“Pretty amazing! We just went out and did what we could and we got the catch so to be European champions and to do the time we did, we're really really happy.”

Dannielle Khan said the win meant a lot to her:

“I'm over the moon. I've been battling with injuries for the last few months so it's nice to make the transition across.

“It's my first team pursuit outing with these girls so we haven't ridden together that many times, only a few days up until this competition so really happy it went well, nice and smooth and fast.

That was the second team pursuit medal of the day, with the under-23 men taking bronze in their ride-off for third place against Belarus.

Matt Bostock, Joe Holt, Mark Stewart and Ollie Wood recorded a time of 3:59.396, with the gold medal going to France.

Individual pursuit

Junior rider Reece Wood picked up his second medal of the week with an impressive ride in the bronze medal final.

Wood, part of the gold-medal winning team pursuit quartet on Tuesday, beat his Irish opponent Xeno Young by more than three seconds in a time of 3:19.326 over 3km.

Fred Wright finished in sixth place in qualifying.

In the women’s individual pursuit, Eleanor Dickinson finished fourth after a brave ride in the bronze medal final.

Dickinson, a bronze medallist on Tuesday in the team pursuit, set a time of 2:27.781 over 2km, but was beaten to third place by Poland’s Nikola Rozynska by just over two seconds.

Gallery

2016 UEC Track Juniors and U23 European Championships - day two

Emily Tillett took ninth place in the morning’s qualifying session as the gold went to Olivija Baleistye of Lithuania.

In the men’s 1km time trial, Jake Stewart finished sixth with Hamish Turnbull tenth as Belgium’s Ayrton De Pauw took gold.

Two British junior women sprinters made it through to the quarter-finals as Sophie Capewell and Lauren Bate-Lowe looked for individual honours following their team sprint bronze on Tuesday.

Capewell won her first heat against Martina Fidanza before the Italian booked her place in tomorrow’s semi-finals by winning the next two heats.

Bate-Lowe was beaten 2-0 by France’s Mathilde Gros. Both made their way through to the minor final, with Bate-Lowe pipping Capewell to fifth place.

Results

Under-23 men team pursuit

Under-23 women team pursuit

Under-23 men team sprint

Junior women sprint

Junior men ind. pursuit

Junior women ind. pursuit

Junior men time trial

Follow our #RiderRoute blog from three of our junior riders here.