Archibald’s pursuit of the dream ends in gold
CYCLING Scot puts injury agony behind her with incredible triumph. By Mark Woods in the Olympic Velodrome
HUGGING her teammates, embracing the moment, Katie Archibald capped her extraordinary rise up the track cycling firmament last night in Rio with a brilliant ride in the team pursuit final that helped catapult the British women to Olympic gold.
Four years ago, when this title was claimed by the hosts in London, the young hopeful from Milngavie was not even on a defined trajectory towards the elite. Now, with her talent blossomed, the Scot joined Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Joanna Rowsell-Shand to assassinate the challenge of the United States with speed and with style.
An extraordinary ride brought a world record of 4:10.236 for the comeback kids who landed a mere bronze when the World Championships were staged in London four months ago. The Americans reigned supreme then. They were dethroned and demolished with Archibald to the fore.
“We were convinced it was going to go down to the wire,” the 22-yearold said. “America had come out harder than us. In all the previous rides, we’ve not been up to the last kilometre. That means they’ve been having a tail on us. Trying to close down that gap. I had a sneaky look at the end to see if we were there. When you get that, you have that champing at the bit sensation. We felt like superheroes.”
When Archibald came off her motorbike in the wet last December, it was more than her pride took a fall. Under fire from British Cycling’s then-technical director Shane Sutton for taking unnecessary risks, the Scot’s place in the pecking order was placed under scrutiny, her attitude placed under question for venturing out in the rain.
Her elbow was fractured. Her ego doubtless bruised. Collectively, her team-mates voted to play safe until the Games had passed. Here, they let fly on two wheels without due care, pushing and pulling along each other along, their combination of horsepower and technique squeezing every joule of energy from their legs and their machines.
“There was a tinge of guilt,” Archibald admitted. “I struggled for a bit. But the girls did a storming ride in London.”
Payback has been made, her con- science cleared. The GB women were a second in front at halfway and the US could not recover. Uncharacteristically ragged in their riding, they kept dropping gradually off the pace and eventually fell off their perch.
Taking the applause from a hardy group of British fans inside the cavernous velodrome, the Britons were right to inhale the rarefied air. It carved a slice of history for Trott, the first female Olympian from the UK to take three golds in a career. A fourth could come
later this week in the omnium. Who would bet against her following the lead set by her fiancée Jason Kenny? “I don’t want to jinx it,” she said. “But I target a gold medal in every race I enter.”
To her side stood the other holdover from 2012, Rowsell-Shand, who has been there from the highs to the lows and now back again. “It means the world to me,” she said. “Compared to London four year ago, this was a much harder battle in so many ways. We came here as bronze medallists from the world championships. Not the world record holders. It hasn’t all been going our way the past two years. I’m so proud of the girls in how they’ve pulled together over the last two months.”
Minutes later, Becky James added to the British medal tally as she surged from the back and attacked the finish line to take silver in the keirin behind Dutch rival Elis Ligtee with twicechampion Anna Meares of A ustralia securing bronze.
“I was at the back, and I kept thinking: When do I go? When do I go?” the Welshwoman said. “I had so much speed. I was so desperate for that medal. This is so special. I have 10 of my family here, my mum had never been on a long-haul flight before. It has been a tough two years and this is a medal we have all won together.” Elsewhere, Callum Skinner guaranteed himself at least one race at a medal to supplement the team pursuit gold he claimed on Friday by reaching the sprint semi-finals with a 2-0 win over China’s Xu Chao. He was joined by Kenny who will get a crack at the sixth medal of his career. The pair are kept apart in the draw as the first and second seed.
“That was perfect from both of them,” said past master Chris Hoy. “Jason rode from behind. He ran at his opponent. Callum took a different approach, went to the front opened up a gap and then really poured it on. It was perfection.”