Team USN’s Lewis Oliva powered through to the podium at the HSBC UK National Track Championships, taking the Keirin title and two further medals in the Team Sprint and Sprint competitions.
Oliva edged Matt Rotherham to the line to take keirin gold, on day one of the Championships: "Yeah sometimes you've got to make the best of a bad situation you know and it's definitely not my tactic to go out that long, I haven't got that style of legs," Oliva said.
"I prefer it to be a little bit shorter and a little bit punchier but obviously when it pays off and you're going into that last lap when nobody has past you yet you know you are going pretty well so yeah it's good."
Oliva then went on to take bronze in the Sprint and joined Ryan Hutchinson and Alex Joliffe in the Team Sprint to take bronze for Black Line A.
In the women’s Team Pursuit, Team Breeze took the title, with Manon Lloyd and Emily Nelson in Breeze colours. They caught Liv Epic CC in the medal ride off, with Wales’ Emily Tillett and Jessica Roberts taking silver. Katie Prankerd took bronze with Boot Out Breast Cancer.
In the women’s sprint event, Abergavenny Road Club’s Rachel James qualified fastest and took silver, with Jessica Crampton becoming the national champion. On the final day, James graced the podium again with a silver in the 500m TT.
Metaltek Kuota’s Zach May impressed in the bunch events, taking bronze in both the Points and Scratch events and a PB in the Individual Pursuit. Team Breeze’s Emily Nelson was a podium regular, becoming Team Pursuit champion alongside fellow Welsh rider Manon Lloyd, and collecting silver in both the Points race and Individual Pursuit.
Elinor Barker battled against Katie Archibald in the Scratch race, but settled for bronze with Neah Evans taking silver.
In the men’s Team Pursuit, Joe Holt and the 100%ME team had to settle for silver as Brother NRG Driverplan secured the title. Wales’ Junior Men set a new Welsh record to finish fifth overall.
