The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Great Britain’s Barker settles for silver on opening day of Track World Championships
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: British rider has to settle for silver in scratch race
Elinor Barker was left frustrated after narrowly missing out on a first individual title with scratch silver on the opening day at the Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.
Barker, Olympic champion in the team pursuit in Rio, appeared to be wellplaced to succeed absent team-mate Laura Kenny as champion in the nonOlympic scratch race.
The 22-year-old Cardiff racer was one of six riders to lap the field with seven laps of the 40-lap race to go and launched her sprint with just under two laps to go.
She tried to cling on, but Italy’s Rachele Barbieri narrowly beat her to the line to claim the world champion’s rainbow jersey.
“I kind of wish I’d lost by a little bit of a bigger margin,” said Barker, twice a team pursuit world champion and 2012 junior road time-trial world champion.
“I feel like I was good enough to win it.
“I know I’m going to watch it back and pick it apart and think, ‘Argh, that’s where I lost the race’.
“I am happy with a silver medal and quite proud of it, but I’m not going to get to wear the world stripes next time I race the scratch race, which is what I wanted.”
Four-time Olympic champion Kenny, who married six-time Olympic champion Jason Kenny last September, won the title last year in London, but is now pregnant and taking a break.
Belgium’s Jolien D’hoore, who was third, told Barker prior to the podium presentation that she “looked just like Laura” on the track.
That might have been a comment on the Britons’ similar physical stature, but also a compliment in the way Barker animated the race.
She tried to persuade Holland’s Kirsten Wild to lead the sprint and she would then have tried to accelerate from behind her, but the Dutchwoman did not want to give Barker the initiative.
And having contributed little to the group which claimed the lap, Barbieri summoned the energy to win the dash for the line.
Barker has the points race to come on Sunday’s final day of competition and the Madison on Saturday’s fourth day, where she is slated to ride with Emily Nelson.
“It’s definitely made me want to win even more, coming so close and not quite getting it,” Barker added.
“The points race is what I’ve been training for and that’s what most of my hopes are on.”
Another opportunity for a medal comes on today’s second day, when the women’s team pursuit concludes and Barker is expected to come into the lineup.
None of the Olympic gold medalwinning quartet took part in qualifying yesterday afternoon.
Barker was conserving energy for the scratch race, while Scot Katie Archibald is focusing on individual events here. Joanna Rowsell-Shand has now retired and there is also no Kenny.
A new-look quartet of Ellie Dickinson, Emily Kay, Manon Lloyd and Nelson qualified fifth in four minutes 21.449 seconds.
Only the top four-ranked teams have a chance to make the gold medal ride-off, but Britain will hope to be one of the two fastest losers to contest the race for bronze.
Britain reached a ride-off for bronze with Italy in the corresponding men’s event after also finishing fifth in qualifying.
Two-time Olympic champion Steven Burke and Kian Emadi swapped out between the afternoon qualifying session and the first round, when Dundee’s Mark Stewart and Chris Latham replaced them.
Stewart, part of the British quartet to claim gold in the team pursuit in the opening round of the 2016-17 Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow, combined with Andy Tennant , Latham and Ollie Wood to finish more than two seconds quicker than earlier in the day in 3:56.796.
The final will be contested by New Zealand and Australia, who benefited from catching Britain in qualifying to post the third fastest time in history.
The world record set by Ed Clancy, Owain Doull, Burke and Sir Bradley Wiggins in winning Olympic gold in Rio last August was 3:50.265. And Australia qualified in 3:50.577, just 0.007 behind Britain’s first-round time in Rio.
Britain’s bid for a first men’s team sprint world title since 2005 goes on.
Jack Carlin, Ryan Owens and Joe Truman qualified in third place in 43.416, but were beaten in the first round by Holland, the eventual runnersup to New Zealand.