Track World Cup: Barker and Archibald enjoy track gold rush

Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker collected their second gold medals of the weekend by helping Great Britain to a comfortable victory in the women's team pursuit at the Track World Cup in Manchester.
Great Britain's Katie Archibald leads Neah Evans, Emily Nelson and Elinor Barker on their way to winning the Women's Team Pursuit. Picture: Martin Rickett/PAGreat Britain's Katie Archibald leads Neah Evans, Emily Nelson and Elinor Barker on their way to winning the Women's Team Pursuit. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA
Great Britain's Katie Archibald leads Neah Evans, Emily Nelson and Elinor Barker on their way to winning the Women's Team Pursuit. Picture: Martin Rickett/PA

Archibald and Barker had been afforded a morning off after winning gold in the madison on Saturday night, allowing Manon Lloyd and Emily Kay to help Neah Evans and Emily Nelson to book Britain’s place in the gold medal race with a straightforward first-round victory over Belgium.

And there was no doubt about the final either with Archibald, Barker, Evans and Nelson beating Italy by a margin of almost five seconds.

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It was a third medal of the weekend for Archibald, who took silver in the omnium on Friday night as well.

“It’s cool to have ended on a high, not just in the time we’ve set, but the way we’ve ridden it,” saidthe 23-year-old.

“I didn’t expect it to go that well, because we’ve got it by a margin there and I’m pretty proud of it to be honest.”

As Olympic champions, it was no surprise to see Archibald and Barker doing extended turns on the front, but Evans and Nelson were doing one-and-a-half lap efforts of their own in an impressive showing.

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“It’s not surprising, but it’s nice to be pleasantly informed as to what’s in this team,” added Archibald.

“This is only the second or third major competition of rolling out of a team pursuit plan and building that to race day. I’m enthused about it.”

The winning time was an improvement on the four minutes 18.471 seconds the quartet set in qualifying on Saturday, making it the fastest time by a British squad since Archibald and Barker joined Laura Kenny and Joanna Roswell Shand in breaking the world record at the Rio Olympics.

Britain’s Olympic team sprint champion Callum Skinner was in the colours of trade team 100 per cent Me and the Scot collected bronze in the kilo on Sunday.

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The 25-year-old set a personal best of one minute 1.061 seconds, two weeks after suffering a back injury at the European Championships in Berlin.

“To come here and stay injury free was a win, to set a PB was another win,” said Skinner after his event, which was won by Australian Matthew Glaetzer.