Great Britain’s six-medal World haul shows how ‘we are building to Tokyo’
It was all rather overshadowed by the the Culture, Media and Sport select committee’s impending report into doping, but Stephen Park, British Cycling’s performance director, hailed a “hugely encouraging” week for his team as the Track World Championships drew to a close in Holland yesterday.
Great Britain were unable to add to their medal tally on the final day, with Mark Stewart and Ollie Wood fourth in the madison, Elinor Barker 12th in the points race and Callum Skinner just missing out on a place in the kilometre final. However, their total of six medals – comprising two gold, three silver and one bronze medal – doubled their pre-event target and left them third in the standings behind hosts Netherlands and Germany.
“When you look at the events we have been competitive in, it has been mostly across the board,” said Park. “You could argue the women’s sprint hasn’t been as strong although Katy [Marchant] did get a PB in the 500m TT. Seeing the younger riders coming through, though, there is no doubt they are providing strong upward pressure.”
Park cited endurance riders such as 19-year-old Ethan Hayter and 21-year-old Charlie Tanfield – who was selected from outside the programme. Both of them helped GB to gold in the men’s team pursuit.
He also singled out 20- year-old Jack Carlin, who won a stunning silver medal in the individual sprint.
The women’s endurance squad had a tough time with Katie Archibald and Barker having to pull out of events and swap into others on medical grounds. Even then, they took silver in the team pursuit, while Archibald and Emily Nelson won gold in the madison. And established stars such as Ed Clancy, and Laura and Jason Kenny – the latter duo returning well ahead of schedule following the birth of their child last summer – performed well.
Park conceded the threemedal target had been fairly conservative, but added: “It’s recognising where we are in building towards Tokyo – obviously we weren’t expecting people like Laura or Jason to be back so soon. And it’s recognition of how competitive it has become.”
Park concluded by saying that he hoped the public would get behind his young team despite all of the controversy swirling around the sport and the national governing body. “I hope that the cycling public can really see the effort and change that has been going on within [British Cycling] and recognise that a lot of this was historical. A lot happened in 2010, 2012. The majority of the riders weren’t part of the program. A lot of the staff weren’t part of the program.
“Our role is to win medals, and we don’t want to win any less than we did. But we fully recognise that how we win is as important as winning itself.”