Team pursuit silver for Great Britain at Euros

Team pursuit silver for Great Britain at Euros

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Great Britain Cycling Team collected their first medal of the 2017 UEC European Track Championships with silver in the women’s team pursuit.

Olympic champions Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker were joined by Emily Kay and Manon Lloyd for the final against Italy at the Velodrom in Berlin.

And despite a close fought race for the majority of the 16 laps, the Italian team were able to widen the gap in the closing stages, to finish in 4:17.853 to Britain’s 4:21.164.

“As a team we’ve pulled together well over the two days and to come away with silver - we’re all happy but there’s things to work on,” Emily Kay said.

Teammate Lloyd added: “This is the starting point of the track season and to come second to Italy - they did a really good time of 4:17 and we still did a pretty good time so we’re happy. We’ve got a lot to work on in the coming weeks.”

The British quartet had seen off the challenge of Germany in round one, leading when three of their opponents crashed to the velodrome floor to end the contest.

Italy, the defending champions, had qualified fastest on Wednesday, ahead of Great Britain in second.

Team sprint

In the women’s sprint, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant finished in seventh, having earlier qualified in the eighth with a time of 43.818 seconds.

Capewell, making her senior debut for Great Britain, led out the first lap in both rides as the British duo faced fastest qualifiers Germany in round one, losing out to miss out on a medal ride although their time did lift them one place in the final standings.

In the men’s team sprint, Olympic champion Philip Hindes linked up with Jack Carlin and Joe Truman to finish sixth in qualifying.

Ryan Owens and Callum Skinner then joined Carlin for the first round ride against Germany, but having led for two laps the Germans overcame the deficit to win by half-a-second, with Britain finishing sixth.

Scratch and elimination races

Ellie Dickinson took an impressive fifth in the elimination race, the 19-year-old having helped Great Britain to second in team pursuit qualification on Wednesday.

Chris Latham was ninth in the scratch race. Bronze medallist at the world championships, Latham attacked throughout the race having missed the early lap gain but despite his persistent efforts could not take the lap back.

Day three of the championships take place on Friday.

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.