Sleepless nights no hindrance as Laura wins a second gold
LaUra KENNY defied a sleepless night to win her second gold medal at the European Championships in Glasgow with victory in the women’s elimination race.
Motherhood and medals do not always mix and the quadruple Olympic champion was served a timely reminder of her priorities by baby son albie at the flat she shares with husband and fellow track star Jason Kenny on Saturday night.
‘I was up five times last night — and he didn’t actually fall asleep until nine o’clock, the little sod,’ laughed Kenny after seeing off Germany’s anna Knauer in the final head-to-head for her 12th career continental gold.
‘But you get used to it. I don’t even feel like I’ve had a lack of sleep any more — I just come in and get on with it.’
all evidence would suggest that the 26-year-old’s new work-life balance is serving her well, having won her first Glasgow gold as part of the GB team pursuit squad, with the prospect of the madison alongside Scotland’s Katie archibald to come.
Both her dominant performance and her evident enthusiasm for her new role bodes well for the long haul towards Tokyo 2020, and is a position Kenny never thought she would face when she was called up for her first European Championships in Poland in 2010.
a late replacement for the injured Joanna rowsell-Shand, a then 18-year-old Kenny marked her senior GB debut in Pruszkow with a gold medal as part of the team pursuit squad.
‘Poland was the beginning for me,’ she added. ‘If you’d asked me then if I’d be a mum with four Olympic and 12 European gold medals I would have said no, that’s not the way my life is going to pan out.
‘Pre-rio I used to go home if I’d had a bad session and that was all I would think about, whereas now I don’t have time to think about anything else other than albie.
‘He’s running around like you wouldn’t believe at the minute. I’m making sure he’s not pulling the wires out of the wall or sticking things in plug sockets, rather than thinking about riding around in circles.’
Kenny will have her chance to complete a hat-trick of Glasgow gold medals when she teams up with archibald in the madison when the track programme concludes tomorrow.
‘They’re going to go mad for Katie so it will be a great atmosphere,’ said Kenny. ‘I’m glad I’ve done a group race now. It was a good standard so now I know where I’m actually going.’
In the evening session there was only one GB representative as Oliver Wood finished tenth in the men’s 40km points race.
The 22-year-old from Wakefield started the race well, storming to the top of the leaderboard on 25 points after the second points sprint and lapping the other riders. But he wasn’t able to sustain his form and fell down the table as Poland’s Wojciech Pszczolarski dominated the race to win the gold on 102 points.
‘I went too early, played my cards and didn’t have the legs to back it up,’ said Wood. Unfortunately, that’s the way racing is.’
ahead of his participation in today’s madison event he added: ‘Ethan Hayter was absolutely on fire (in the omnium). If I can just be half decent I think we’ll have a great chance.’
Germany’s domenic Weinstein took the gold over Ivo Oliveria of Portugal in the men’s individual pursuit, with Switzerland’s Claudio Imhof taking bronze.
There was a photo finish in the women’s sprint bronze event as France’s Mathilde Gros took third spot from Germany’s Miriam Welte, while it was an all-russian final as daria Shmeleva and anastasia Voinova won the gold and silver medals respectively.