Laura Trott and team win gold after breaking world record
Cyclists break world record to earn Team GB’s ninth win as Wiggins faces questions over gesture
LAURA TROTT claimed her third Olympic cycling gold medal in style as she and the women’s pursuit team blasted away the USA to earn Team GB’s ninth gold of Rio 2016.
Trott, 24, Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker and Jo Rowsell-Shand broke the world twice, initially in qualifying and then in the gold medal race, recording a time of four minutes 10.23 seconds.
It was Rowsell-Shand’s second gold medal, after winning the same event at London 2012. For Archibald and Barker it was their first Olympic win.
In a glorious night for British women’s cycling, Becky James won a silver medal in the keirin just 20 minutes later. James, from Wales, marked her Olympic debut by launching a sensational burst from last in the field to claim second spot. She was watched on from the sidelines by a delighted Victoria Pendleton, who won the event in 2012.
James said: “I was at the back and I was thinking ‘When do i go? when do I go?’, I don’t know where it came from. I was just so desperate for that medal.”
Trott, the 5ft 4in pocket rocket from Harlow, Essex, is now just one gold medal behind her fiancé Jason Kenny, who is hoping to have six golds by the end of Rio 2016.
She and Kenny have enjoyed multiple world record-breaking races in their respective events and have been cheering each other on alongside their parents at the Olympic Park Velodrome.
Trott, who has overcome asthma, won her first two golds at London 2012, in the omnium and team pursuit alongside Rowsell-Shand.
It was a second successive night of gold medals and world records for Team GB after Sir Bradley Wiggins became the most decorated Olympian in history. Wiggins, who won the team pursuit with Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke, had caused a stir by sticking his tongue out during the medal ceremony to please his children at home.
He said afterwards that he spotted his face being beamed on the arena’s television screens as he stood to sing.
“I saw my stupid face and I knew my kids would be watching on TV,” he said afterwards.
Wiggins won his fifth Olympic gold and eighth medal in all – a British record – in his fifth Games on Friday night after powering his team to two world record times.
But yesterday he played down comparisons with six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Steve Redgrave, winner of five golds. All three had embraced after an emotioncharged night at the arena.
The 36-year-old, who confirmed he was retiring, said: “Who counts bronze and silvers when you’ve got five golds? Five is a nice number. Chris has got six, so I haven’t surpassed Chris.
“I can remember 16 years ago being
‘Who counts bronze and silvers when you’ve got five golds? Five is a nice number. Chris has got six, so I haven’t surpassed Chris’
in Sydney and seeing Steve win his fifth with Matt [Pinsent], James Cracknell and that. I just remember thinking ‘wow’. He was such an inspiration to me at 20 years of age.
“To have five of your own is just brilliant. They’re my two heroes in Olympic sport, apart from Michael Johnson, who is not here.”