Golds for Archibald siblings

Britain’s women’s team pursuit quartet continued their stunning form on a golden first evening at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in London.

After impressing in the early rounds, the team of Laura Kenny, Katie Archibald, Neah Evans and Ellie Dickinson caught world champions USA with over a kilometre of still to go, delighting the home crowd and securing their third world cup title in a row.

Scottish rider Archibald said: “The way that we’ve gone out today has proven a really good formula. The most important part of a team pursuit is inevitably that last kil- ometre and we’re yet to really test that, but although the world championships seem a long way away, I’m excited to see what we can do there.”

There was British success in the men’s event as well, as trade team Huub Wattbike – Dan Bigham, Jonny Wale, John Archibald (Katie’s brother) and Ashton Lambie – defeated Belgium to claim gold, and a youthful Britain team of Fred Wright, Will Tidball, Ethan Vernon and Matthew Walls beat the Italian quartet to bronze.

● The verdict in Jess Varnish’s employment case against British Cycling and UK Sport will not be revealed until mid-january at the earliest, a tribunal has been told.