The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Barker loses bridesmaid tag with win in Hong Kong
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Cardiff racer gives GB their second gold medal
Elinor Barker shed her bridesmaid tag to win Track Cycling World Championships gold in Hong Kong.
Barker, who has also won silver medals in the madison and scratch races at the championships, produced a stunning late burst to pip America’s Sarah Hammer in the women’s 25km points race.
The 22-year-old gained two laps on the field to win with 59 points from Hammer (51) and Dutch rider Kirsten Wild (35).
Barker emulated fellow team pursuit Olympic champion Katie Archibald’s omnium win on Friday.
“I’ve come so close so many times. I feel like I’m a constant bunch race bridesmaid,” Barker said. It was touch and go in the points race. Hammer made an audacious solo attack to take a second lap of the field and Barker wrested the initiative from the eventual runner-up with time running out.
It was a first individual senior world title for Barker, junior road time-trial world champion in 2012, who previously won team pursuit gold in 2013 and 2014.
She also finished second to her team pursuit team-mate Laura Kenny in the points race at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Four-time Olympic champion Kenny was absent here, pregnant with her first child.
Now Barker is planning to put her hand up for selection for the omnium in Tokyo, where Kenny (nee Trott) could seek a third successive title in the multidiscipline event.
Barker said: “After this week I’m definitely going to start considering it.
“To get two seconds and a gold, if I can compete like that against some of these riders it should put me in an OK place for the omnium.”
It could make for an intriguing selection battle, with Archibald, Emily Kay, Nelson and others also in the mix.
Barker was buoyed by her gutsy ride in claiming the gold, winning Britain’s final medal of the week after opening the account with scratch race silver on Wednesday.
The Welshwoman led Hammer until the American went off on her solo mission, succeeding with fewer than 20 laps to go.
Double points were available at the final sprint, but the margin was such that it could only be bridged if Barker could gain a lap.
She formed a group with Wild and Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky to quickly regain the initiative and then went on to finish with a flourish by out-sprinting Hammer.
The men’s Madison was won by France, with Australia in second and Belgium third, while GB did not finish.
Britain ended the five-day event with five medals, two of them gold, and joint fourth on the medal table with Germany. Australia led the way with three golds and 11 medals in all.