Great Britain take four medals on successful second day at Track World Cup

The GB squad picked up a gold medal in the men’s team sprint as well as podium spots in both team pursuits

The GB Mens team pursuit at the New Zealand World Cup track event in 2015

(Image credit: Watson)

Great Britain’s track squad picked up where they left off at the Hong Kong Track World Cup on Friday, showing strong form to pick-up four medals in Saturday’s events.

The biggest success came through the team sprint duo of Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner, who took the gold medal with Poland taking silver in second and Russie rounding off the podium in third.

>>> Watch the 2016 Track Cycling World Cup live HERE on Sunday

The GB trio put in an impressive time of 43.751, narrowly pipping the Polish to the top spot with their time of 43.802.

Further success came in both team pursuit competitions, where the men’s team of Kian Emadi, Chris Latham, Ollie Wood and Germain Burton took bronze and the women’s team of Emily Nelson, Ciara Horne, Jo Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker and took silver.

The women’s team were unable to match the blistering form of Canada, who put in a time of 4:19.737, ahead of GB’s 4:20.034. Canada put time into Britain’s team early on in the final, carrying a second’s advantage after the first 2km.

Although they pulled back time, GB’s women were unable to do enough to take top spot at the season’s final World Cup.

The USA followed up in third to take bronze, with a time of 4:21.412.

Britain’s men, minus Mark Cavendish who had helped the team qualify fastest on the first day of the event, took on Germany in the bronze medal race. While Australia beat Denmark in the gold final with a time 3:57.461, GB just finished ahead of the Germans with a time of 3:59.706.

>>> UCI Track World Cup set for change after this season

Meanwhile, there was some disappointment for the women’s sprint pair of Katy Marchant and Jess Varnish, as they narrowly missed out by half a second to Rusvelo in the women’s sprint final, leaving them finishing with a silver medal.

Elsewhere, Cavendish had a mixed day in the men’s omnium, sitting fourth overall after three events.

The Manxman finished second in both the scratch and elimination races, narrowly denied victory by Frenchman Thomas Boudat in the latter.

But things were not so close for Cavendish, who hopes to qualify for the omnium at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in the individual pursuit competition, where he finished in 16th position. It leaves him 26 points of top spot, with Kazakhstan’s Artyom Zakharov in the lead with 112 points.

Laura Trott meanwhile, showed off her considerable talent in the omnium in a fierce battle with main rival Sarah Hammer of the USA, with the pair finishing the day just two points apart in first and second respectively.

Trott’s best result came in the elimination race, where she won ahead of Hammer in second. It was roles reversed in the individual pursuit though, with Trott having to settle for second.

Both omnium competitions finish on Sunday, the final day of the Track World Cup round in Hong Kong.

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Richard Windsor

Follow on Twitter: @richwindy


Richard is digital editor of Cycling Weekly. Joining the team in 2013, Richard became editor of the website in 2014 and coordinates site content and strategy, leading the news team in coverage of the world's biggest races and working with the tech editor to deliver comprehensive buying guides, reviews, and the latest product news.


An occasional racer, Richard spends most of his time preparing for long-distance touring rides these days, or getting out to the Surrey Hills on the weekend on his Specialized Tarmac SL6 (with an obligatory pub stop of course).