EMOTIONAL KATIE GRABS GOLD
KATIE ARCHIBALD claimed Great Britain’s first gold medal of the 2017 Track Cycling World Championships yesterday with victory in the omnium. The 23-year-old Scot won the opening two of four disciplines but was clinging on by the end of the concluding points race in Hong Kong. ‘I thought it was home time,’ said Archibald, who won ahead of Holland’s Kirsten Wild and Amy Cure of Australia. ‘I put way too much into the chase watching Cure. Wild just kept swinging up, so I thought, “I’m just going to have to chase”. ‘Then she attacks and I think, “Of course she attacks. That’s the right thing to do! I’m going to lose. Well done”. ‘For it to happen the way it did, thinking I was either going to be last or first, was very confusing emotionally.’ But Archibald held firm to win her first individual world title. She added: ‘People always say, “If you win you somehow get the energy”. I don’t have that. ‘I crossed the line and it still hurts. I did a (victory) lap and I thought, “Oh no, they’re not cheering any more”. ‘I miss not having the girls to jump around with. With this it’s been a bit of a lonely haul.’ With two-time Olympic omnium champion Laura Kenny expecting her first child with six-time Olympic gold medallist Jason Kenny, Archibald came to the fore for Great Britain and delivered.The Kennys have won 20 gold medals in the Olympics and World Championships between them, but Laura Kenny, last year’s omnium world champion, says Jason is contemplating retirement. Jason is absent from the championships. Laura Kenny told BBC Sport: ‘He’s having six months to decide what he wants to do, whether to carry on or whether to retire. I’m not sure he even knows. As athletes, you always want to carry on, you want to go to the next one. ‘He’s going to give himself a bit of time. As athletes you become this self-absorbed kind of person and everything’s just about you, but there are bigger things in life than that.’