Gold medal turns Archibald and Evans into daydream believer
KATIE ARCHIBALD and Neah Evans ensured the home crowd went home happy last night, as the duo teamed up with Elinor Barker and Eleanor Dickinson to take gold in the women’s team pursuit at the Glasgow Track Cycling World Cup at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
The Brits qualified in impressive fashion in the morning session and then stepped it up another level entirely to dominate Germany in the final.
The Brits took the lead from the very early stages of the final and never loosened their grasp, crossing the line in four minutes 12.2 seconds to take the victory.
Archibald is no stranger to the top step of the podium at World Cups but she declared herself particularly pleased with this gold medal, especially considering the form the German team showed in last week’s World Cup in Minsk. However, some well-focused psychological preparation ensured they were able to perform to their best and ride the quickest time of any nation in this Olympic cycle.
“That was the same German team that rode in Minsk last weekend and they had a phenomenal ride, it was phenomenally paced and so you look at their splits and you think yeah, that’s a really consistent team,” said Archibald.
“We daydream about being able to step up in the final but the flip side to that is we dream about what other teams can do. It certainly wasn’t in the bag but we’ve had a lot of conversations about focusing on the process as though there’s a trade-off on the result.
“What we’ve showed there is we can focus on the process and go with a strategy that we weren’t necessarily super-confident in and that does garner a good result and a fast time.”
This is Archibald’s second Olympic cycle having won gold in Rio in 2016 and so she has something to compare her progress with. And with the barometer of four years ago, she could not be happier about the direction she is going.
“I feel good about where this season is going,” she said.
“I’ve always been guilty of being wildly inconsistent – I always pull it out on race day but you don’t see the training sessions where I’m all over the place. Now though, I know that I’ve put the work in whereas before, I’d throw dummies out of the pram so I’ve managed to keep the head a bit better. So I think it’s gone a lot better than it’s ever gone.”
Evans has been equally impressive this season and she too is thrilled by her progress. Eight months out from the 2020 Olympics, the team pursuit squad appear to be flying but Evans is adamant they can go faster still.
“That was was good - it’s the fastest I’ve ever gone, it’s the fastest the team has gone in a while so it’s good,” she said.
“We’re now close enough to Tokyo that we’re looking ahead to that. So this isn’t the peak, we’ve got so much more to give and although we’re really fit, we haven’t done a lot of the top-end stuff yet. So it’s so encouraging seeing that we’re doing these great times and yet, we know we’ve got more to build on.
“I absolutely think we can go faster. I’m not going to say that’s as fast as we can go. We always strive to do better and I think at the moment, we’ve laid down a really solid time and so next time, we want to go even faster.”
Carlin and his teammates of Ryan Owens and Joe Trueman were pushed into second place in the team sprint but the 22-year-old declared himself happy with his day’s work.
“As a whole, that was really positive,” he said.
“We’ve been chipping away at the Dutch for the past three months so it’s good to see that we’re finally starting to compete with them.
“I’ve focused very hard on the team sprint, even over individual stuff, which has taken a hit, but from that, we can see that the team sprint is coming good. There’s Ryan and Joe, and then Jason [Kenny] and Phil [Hindes] at home training away. So we’ve got a squad of five and we’re in a really good position.”
THE Lindsays Scottish Short Course Cross-Country Championships takes place in Kirkcaldy today, with the potential of two of Scotland’s biggest names battling it out for honours over the 4k course.
Both Andy Butchart and Callum Hawkins are on the entry list, which is 345 runners strong, with the Olympians joined by a number of other GB and Scotland internationals in Fife.
Butchart and Hawkins are both fresh from their exertions at the recent World Championships in Doha, where Hawkins finished fourth in the marathon while Butchart was eliminated in the heats of the 5000m.
There are a number of races taking place, with honours up for grabs in the under-15 and under-17 category, as well as the Juniors, Seniors and Masters categories.
Contenders in the women’s race are likely to be Jenny Selman and Annabel Simpson, Rebecca Burns, Michelle Sandison, Katie White.
Also in action will be rising star, Erin Wallace, who is the current Commonwealth Youth Games 1500m champion, who will be competing in the under20 race.
Meanwhile, UK Athletics have been forced to restart its search for a new supremo after Scottish Athletics chief Stephen Maguire pulled out of talks to become its performance director.
It is understood that the Northern Irishman rejected the idea of an extended secondment from his role north of the border following initial discussions with UKA chair Chris Clark.
Maguire will, however, stay in his part-time role overseeing the British sprint and relay programmes, in addition to serving as Scottish Athletics head of performance.
UKA sources insisted they are “looking at a range of options” to fulfil the post vacated last month by Neil Black. But Clark may now have to look outside his existing staff with a quick appointment required headed into an Olympic year.
At the World Para Athletics Championships in Doha,
Sammi Kinghorn last night took bronze in the T53 100m. Kinghorn was defending champion in the event but had her preparation somewhat disrupted by an operation earlier in the summer.