Hannah Mayho added to her team pursuit gold from day one with another in the individual pursuit on the second day of competition at the European track championships yesterday.
The British junior rider qualified second fastest in the morning, but overturned the deficit in the final, beating Belgian rider Jolien D?Hoore in the two-kilometre event with a time of 2-28.175 minutes.
It was one of two golds won by the British team in Poland on Thursday as the under-23 women stormed to victory in the team pursuit, beating the French team by an amazing nine seconds in the final.
The team was lead by Jo Rowsell who has a world title in the same event, won in Manchester this year. She was joined by Lizzie Armitstead and Katie Colclough, and the trio were always well clear of their rivals. Their time of 3-26.836 is only four seconds off the world record set by Rowsell, Rebecca Romero and Wendy Houvenaghel in Manchester.
There was a silver medal for the male sprinters as Matt Crampton, David Daniell and Christian Lyte were just pipped by Russia in the team sprint. ?We're happy with that,? sprint coach Iain Dyer said. ?It?s the first time those boys have ridden together in competition, so every time they raced it was PB territory. Matt?s not normally a man-one rider but he?s put in a really good performance.?
Jess Varnish took bronze in the women?s sprint having bounced back from being relegated in her semi final ride. The sprint is the first of four events that Varnish is competing in over the five days.
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Mark Christian also won bronze in the junior men's individual pursuit. Having won silver in the team pursuit on Wednesday, Christian got back on to the track to qualify in third fastest with a time of 3-20.472 minutes on Thursday. He raised his game again in the evening's final, posting a time of 3-19.683 to take bronze, three seconds faster than the silver medalist went in his final. Andrew Fenn was eighth.
Junior Luc Jones took one-and-a-half-seconds off of his personal best for the kilometre, finishing eighth in a time of 1-06.121 minutes. Gold went to Frenchman Quentin Lafargue in a world class time of 1-02.337. A French rider also took the silver, adding to their already impressive medal tally.
In this morning?s events, the British qualified fastest in the men?s under-23 team pursuit, stopping the clock at 4-08 minutes to beat the Russian team in cold conditions. ?We were on a 4-06 [schedule] so they did come off that, but it was alright, there?s more in there,? Olympic Academy coach Rod Elllingworth said.
Peter Kennaugh, Mark McNally and Andy Tennnant were purposely given very little track preparation for these championships, instead having to convert their racing fitness into track suplesse during road based sessions. ?It?s one of those things, when you?ve only got short preparation you?re constantly trying to find out where you?re at, which we knew was the issue.? Ellingworth added. ?It?s respectable, it?s just enough but it?s not amazing. If we?d have done two or three weeks track preparation I would have been pretty disappointed with that.?
?The Russians did a 4-09, but they looked really solid with. We looked a little ragged, so we?ll see what happens [in the final].?
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