Silver success for Scots at Cycling world championships

Image credit: British Cycling. See orginal article @ EN4 News here.

Silver is the colour of choice for Scottish athletes at the Track Cycling World Championships in Berlin this week.

Scotland’s cycling sweetheart Katie Archibald was joined by fellow Scot Neah Evans to clinch silver in the women’s team pursuit last night.

Jack Carlin and his team also claimed second in the sprint on Wednesday evening.

Sports journalist Susan Egelstaff told EN4 news: “I think it’s a pretty good return (for the Scottish athletes) so far.

“I think these world championships are not necessarily the same as a normal world championship because it’s an Olympic year…”

Egelstaff continued: “Obviously they want to become world champion and they want to win world medals, but I think more than anything they will be using this as a marker for the Olympics. The riders will be giving everything on the day but I think that come Tokyo, there will be a little bit more to give.”

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Team GB though, with veteran Jason Kenny failing to qualify for the Kerin final and his wife Laura not medalling in the scratch race. “The expectations on them are so high that whenever they don’t win, it’s considered an upset.

“It just shows how strong world cycling is; it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done, you can’t expect to just walk in and medal on the world stage,” Susan continued.

“I think there definitely could be a few more medals for the Scottish athletes and would expect more for the GB team.”

Day three of the championships have just kicked off over in Germany. Dundee’s Mark Stewart will compete in the men’s point race shortly, while Great Britain’s most successful ever female Olympian, Laura Kenny, will be hoping to add to her silver when she begins her omnium campaign this evening.