GB CHIEF: GOLD RUSH AT AN END
ELINOR BARKER saved Great Britain from embarrassment on the day cycling chief Stephen Park warned not to expect another gold rush at the Olympics.
The Welsh woman, 25, secured Britain’s only gold of the Track Cycling World Championships when she won yesterday’s points race. But Barker’s victory came in an event which is not in the Olympics, and it merely papered over the cracks of what has been a worrying week with just five months to go until Tokyo.
Britain’s tally of four medals is their worst performance at a World Championships preceding a Games since 2000. It is also the first time since Sydney that they will go into an Olympics without a world champion in one of the 12 events on the programme. At Rio 2016, GB won 11 medals in track cycling, six of them gold. It was seven golds out of nine medals at London 2012, and at Beijing 2008 the track team claimed seven golds and 12 gongs in total.
British Cycling performance director Park, however, fears they could come back from Tokyo with their worst haul since Athens 2004, when they won only two golds and four medals.
‘We should temper our expectations,’ said Park during the last day in Berlin. ‘I don’t expect any country to run away with the medals. The days of any nation winning 10- plus medals have probably gone. I don’t think that is a result of GB’s performances decreasing, I think that is a result of the worldwide competition increasing.
‘People will think, “Of course he’s got to manage expectations”. But the reality is the standard of track cycling is increasing all the time and the difference in terms of equipment and technology is decreasing.
‘People are paying more attention to some of the detail and lots of people who were involved in our programme are going out working with other teams.’
Park’s comments came as Barker registered an impressive win in the points race to go with the silver she secured in the team pursuit on Thursday.
She said: ‘It’s not irrelevant that it’s not an Olympic event, but it doesn’t make it feel any less incredible.’