Stewart denied bronze in World’s Madison final

Mark Stewart narrowly missed out on his second medal of the week after the Dundee cyclist and Wakefield’s Oliver Wood finished an agonising fourth in yesterday’s Madison final at the World Track Championships in Apeldoorn, Holland.

The 22-year-old Scot was full of confidence following his third place finish in Friday night’s points race, but Stewart’s stunning last lap sprint came fractionally too late as Australia clung on to deny him another bronze medal by a single point.

Germany won the 50km, 200-lap event with 53 points, ahead of Spain on 45 and the Australians on 37.

“It was flat out from the start and we knew we had to get involved,” Stewart said.

“If you see yourself up the leaderboard mentally you just move to the front of the race and we did that. But when guys like (Australia’s Cameron Meyer) go and get a lap it’s so hard.

“I’m happy with how we rode it. We’ll go back and look at the video and where we missed that one point.”

At the start of the final day, Elinor Barker looked to be Britain’s best chance of further success as she defended the points race title she won in Hong Kong 12 months ago.

But the 23-year-old could only manage 12th place, continuing a frustrating few days after she crashed in the women’s omnium on Friday, forcing her to miss the Madison in which Katie Archibald and Emily Nelson won gold on Saturday.

The race was won by Holland’s Kirsten Wild, a third world title of the week for the 35-year-old.

In the men’s kilo, Scot Callum Skinner failed to make it out of a fast qualifying session in which three riders went under 60 seconds. Skinner finished ninth.

Mark Stewart: fourth.