Laura Kenny seals second European track title

Laura Kenny won her second track cycling European championship gold medal on Sunday, adding the women’s elimination race to the team pursuit title she won on Friday.

The 26-year-old quadruple Olympic gold medalist secured her 12th career European medal defeating Germany’s Anna Knauer over the final two-lap shoot-out, with Russia’s Evgenia Augustinas taking bronze.

For Kenny, who resumed competitive riding earlier this year, the win brought with it the added bonus of being able to return home and present her 1-year-old son with another “Bonnie the seal,” the Glasgow 2018 official mascot, after the dog got the first one.

“I was thinking I didn’t want to leave Albie for nothing because he wasn’t very happy this morning... I’m glad I’ve got another medal to take home to him – and he needed another seal mascot because the dog got the last one,” Kenny, who is married to men’s track cycling star Jason, told the BBC.

Albie is perhaps fortunate to be the beneficiary of the mascot having given his mother a turbulent time on the eve of the race itself.

“I was up five times last night – and he didn’t actually fall asleep until nine o’clock, the little sod,” she said.

Kenny, who got married after the 2016 Olympics, said rustiness in the event after her self-imposed sabbatical had made her more on edge than usual.

She will try and add a third European crown when she competes in the Madison with Katie Archibald on Tuesday.