Latham claims world bronze as Sky suffer fresh allegations
Briton’s brave attack in the scratch race pays off Road team accused of breaking no-needles rule
While Team Sky were facing further uncomfortable questions last night regarding their historic use of needles, here in Hong Kong Great Britain’s track riders were doing their best to look to the future.
The squad, shorn of many of their biggest names, picked up a second bronze medal of the UCI Track World Championships, courtesy of 23-year-old Chris Latham in the scratch race.
And although it felt like a fair-tomiddling day otherwise – with men’s and women’s pursuit teams missing out on potential bronze medals, and Katy Marchant, Joe Truman and Lewis Oliva exiting their sprint events early – the riders themselves were upbeat.
The men’s pursuit team finished fourth, two seconds behind Italy, and the women finished fifth. The times they posted – a 3min 58sec and a 4-21 respectively – were decent, but more noteworthy was that both teams featured young riders who will learn from this experience.
In the case of the men, Ollie Wood (21), Mark Stewart (21) and Kian Emadi (24) teamed up with double Olympic gold medallist Steven Burke.
For the women, who were without three-quarters of the team who smashed the world record in Rio last summer, with Laura Kenny pregnant, Joanna RowsellShand retired and Katie Archibald focusing on individual events here, Elinor Barker was the veteran at 22. The Welsh rider was joined by Manon Lloyd (20), Emily Nelson (20) and Eleanor Dickinson (18). “It’s a very young team, and the level is so much higher than I thought it would be,” said Barker after she stepped in for Emily Kay (21) for the firstround ride. Burke went further in talking up his young team-mates, saying he was “100 per cent confident” they had the talent to close the gap to Australia by Tokyo 2020. The Australians won in 3-51.503. “The average age for this team is 26,” he said. “Compared to last year, it was 29, 30. Australia have got three world champions from last year. I’m very confident – 100 per cent – that we can bridge that gap in the next couple of years and I’m still confident going towards Tokyo.”
It was left to Latham to finish the day on a high for GB, and he delivered, emerging late from the pack in his 40-lap race to chase down Adrian Teklinski, of Poland, who won gold, and silver medallist Lucas Liss, of Germany.
UK Anti-Doping, meanwhile, is said to be investigating fresh claims that Team Sky contravened cycling’s ‘no needles’ policy by injecting some of its riders with Fluimucil and other legal substances.
According to the Press Association, a whistleblower has sent information to the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport select committee and UKAD, claiming that some Team Sky doctors were using banned intravenous recovery methods in 2010. Team Sky said: “It is right that any concerns are reported to and dealt with by the authorities, and we will continue to cooperate with them.” The International Association of Athletic Federations says Russia is making “little progress” cleaning up its doping culture to secure its reinstatement into athletics. In a report published yesterday, IAAF Russia task force chairman Rune Andersen criticised Russia’s decision to make pole-vault great Yelena Isinbayeva the head of the country’s anti-doping agency, saying: “It is difficult to see how this helps to achieve the desired change in culture in Russia track and field, or how it helps to promote an open environment for Russian whistleblowers.” Lewis Hamilton has called on his former team McLaren to bring Jenson Button back to the Formula One fold as a replacement for Fernando Alonso – who is taking part in the Indy 500 – at the Monaco Grand Prix. “I think us drivers should be able to do more than one series,” said Hamilton. “I hope Jenson comes back and it would be great for the sport to have him back in.”