Archibald takes second medal of weekend in thrilling madison
KATIE ARCHIBALD grabbed her second medal of the Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow as the 25-year-old took silver in the women’s madison alongside Elinor Barker.
The race was full of thrills and spills, with a number of crashes reducing the size of the field and ensuring the riders were kept on their toes. However, Archibald and Barker managed to avoid the trouble to finish second on 31 points, nine points behind winners Australia but well clear of thirdplaced Netherlands, who crossed the line with 19 points.
Their silver medal added to the gold the women’s team pursuit, which included Archibald and Barker, won in impressive style on Friday evening and the Scot admitted she was happy with yesterday’s madison ride, but learnt a number of lessons over the 120 laps and, as expected, has her sights set on improving to gold in the future.
“To be honest, I think we avoided some crashes and some of the carnage as a consequence of being out of position which is bitter-sweet. The race itself, in terms of going after the win, we’re very happy with the silver medal but I think we could have done so much better. So that’s another positive-negative. We just want to do better next time,” Archibald said.
“We learned that it’s positioning throughout. I knew that beforehand but you can see that when we invest, we’re one of the fastest there. When we invest, we’re winning sprints, we’re not just competing and so it’s just spreading that commitment in the pinch points in the middle so that we’re in a position to springboard.
“I think you saw that when we weren’t in it, we really weren’t in it because we’re trying to be efficient and move up when we can. So it’s just about reacting straight away when we can so that you don’t have to put in 110 percent two laps later when you could have put in 99 percent that lap before. I guess everybody knows that, we just have to be the ones who follow it through.”
The madison is a relatively new event for the women, only being introduced into the World Championships in 2017. Archibald won the global title in 2018 and with it entering the Olympic programme for the first time in Tokyo next summer, there is plenty of incentive for the Brits.
Archibald and Barker have both stated their double aim for Tokyo is the team pursuit and the madison but having a two-pronged focus is only a positive says Archibald.
“For me personally, and I think Elinor too, we’re both targeting the team pursuit and the madison, we’ve both stated that pretty clearly,” said Archibald. “The team pursuit underpins everything about our squad and our programme and that’s how we have such depth in GB, because it bolsters everything about track cycling. And so to evolve that into being more technical riders and have more strings to my bow, it’s make me proud to get to Tokyo a stronger rider and a more complex rider.”
Archibald has had a busy few weeks, winning European gold, silver and bronze last month ahead of this first World Cup outing of the season. And she has, she reveals, learnt a few valuable lessons in that period that she will take into Tokyo.
“Over the past month, I’ve learnt about investment in the lulls,” she reflected. “It reminds me of road racing when everyone’s busting themselves to get to the top of a climb and you get to the top and you’ll ease off as you get over the top because it’s easier to pedal but that’s the worst thing you can do.
“And it’s the same here – as soon as that ease comes and everyone takes a deep breath, you have to keep pushing. So it’s a physiological target for me, to move my threshold up.”
ANDY BUTCHART has admitted he is seriously considering boycotting the Diamond League events this season following the decision by the IAAF to drop the 5000m from the programme.
The decision was announced by the governing body in March as they attempt to make the Diamond League more television friendly and it is suspected that with the 5000m taking up a considerable amount of time on the programme, they have decided to get rid of it entirely.
For Butchart, who is the current British 5000m champion and has been a regular in the GB team for a number of years, this seriously affects his build-up to the 2020 Olympics. And despite holding himself back from commenting too much on the development since the announcement came earlier in the year, he has revealed he has serious doubts about the IAAF.
“I will try to not run as many Diamond Leagues and boycott and do other things. Because the IAAF right now is just a bit iffy,” the 28-year-old said.
“I go on Twitter and I see everything and I feel like typing a message and then I think no. Maybe I’m too dumb to say anything without sounding stupid.
“There’s nothing I can do, nothing we can do – we just have to do the races.”
It was announced last week that Christian Taylor, the Olympic and world triple jump champion from America, has launched a new athletics association, called ‘The Athletics Association’, which is a new union which aims to give elite track and field athletes greater say in the future of the sport.
Butchart, who won the Scottish Short-Course XC Championships on Saturday, has welcomed the news and is quick to point out that he thinks the athletes must have a greater say in things than they currently do.
“I definitely think that the athletes need to take more control over the sport. Without athletes, there are no events and the athletes aren’t getting the recognition the governing body needs to give them. And that’s ridiculous,” he said. “I like what Christian is doing – he’s a smart guy, he’s a good person to stand behind and he’s a good leader to take the sport to the next level, if that’s what he’s planning.”
NOVAK DJOKOVIC flew out of the traps as he began his ATP Finals campaign with a crushing victory over Matteo Berrettini.
The five-time champion, jousting with Rafael Nadal to finish the year as world No.1, swept aside O2 debutant Berrettini 6-2, 6-1.
Djokovic needs to at least reach the final of the season-ending tournament to stand a chance of overhauling Nadal, and thus equalling Pete Sampras’ record of ending the year on top of the rankings six times.
The 32-year-old Serb certainly looks like he will take some stopping in London.
He wrapped up the first set in just half an hour, dropping only four points on his own serve while breaking Berrettini twice. There was little Berrettini, ranked No.8, could do.
The 23-year-old Italian had got 75 per cent of his first serves in, regularly approaching 140mph, yet won just half of the points.
He won the rally of the match at the start of the second set with an acrobatic get followed by an overhead – earning applause from Djokovic – but still dropped serve thanks to a double fault.
Djokovic reeled off eight games in a row before Berrettini landed a blow of his own, breaking serve to trail 4-1.
But Djokovic responded in kind and went on to wrap up a one-sided victory in only an hour and two minutes.
The reigning Wimbledon champion said: “It feels great to be back. Earlier this year I had a great stay in London, and over the years I’ve played well in this arena.
“It was not easy for him at his first Finals match, I knew he would be nervous at the beginning and I used my experience to perform well.
“I was fortunate to get the first break and then I started reading his serve better. I played really solid throughout the match.
“I’ve been enjoying the conditions here for many years. It’s suitable to my game, but it’s never easy playing a big server like Matteo.”
Earlier Joe Salisbury, Britain’s sole representative in London this week, suffered defeat in the opening doubles rubber.
The 27-year-old and American partner Rajeev Ram were beaten
6-3 6-4 by South African Raven
Klaasen and Michael Venus of New Zealand.
EOIN MORGAN hailed England’s fringe players after they sealed a 3-2 Twenty20 series victory over New Zealand in Auckland - but only after another Super Over between the teams.
Four months on from their suspenseful World Cup final at Lord’s, England and New Zealand were once again at a stalemate inside Eden Park after finishing level on 146 from 11 overs, shortened because of rain.
Boundary countback was all that determined England’s first 50-over global title in July but there was to be little of that drama on the other side of the world as Morgan’s men prevailed by nine runs in the six-ball shootout. Asked whether he foresaw another Super Over against the Black Caps, Morgan replied: “No, not at all. I definitely thought there was going to be a result in an 11-over game.
“The fact it went down to the wire indicates how the guys applied themselves and the level of skill they produced to get close. It was brilliant again and another step forward for us as a group.”
England have blooded six fresh faces this tour and Morgan believes they have put pressure on the more established stars rested from the series.
With the start of the T20 World Cup less than 12 months away, Morgan added: “It creates a really good headache for us when it comes to selection.”