Great Britain’s Katie Archibald and Maddie Leech took home a masterful Madison title on Saturday night at the UCI Track World Championships, adding a third gold medal to their country’s tally before Anna Morris made it four in the individual pursuit.
The Madison pair came into the event with the goal of a top-five finish, but ended up the runaway leaders after the Netherlands crashed out. They took the lead in the second half of the 120-lap race, scoring consistently across the final four sprints, and finishing with 30 points, six ahead of France in second, and 10 ahead of the Olympic champions Italy.
The victory marked Archibald’s first in the event since 2018, and her seventh rainbow jersey in total. Leech, a debutant, enjoyed gold as her first Worlds medal.
“It’s pretty crazy. I don’t think I still believe it, but hopefully in the morning it will sink in,” the 22-year-old said.
“There’s nine years between us,” Archibald said of her partner. “Maddie was 13 years old when the first women’s Madison title was contended. She’s grown up with this race as a reality, which hasn’t always been the case. It feels very cool to be next to somebody on that journey.”
Leech described Archibald as a “legend of the sport”, adding that she had learnt a lot from competing alongside the former Olympic champion. “She’s a great person, so I’m really happy to have had the opportunity to ride with her this week,” she said.
Anna Morris holds British, European and World Championships honours in the individual pursuit.
(Image credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix)
Later in the evening, Anna Morris secured back-to-back world titles in the individual pursuit, toppling Josie Knight in an all-British final.
Only a second separated the two team-mates in qualifying, but Morris made further strides in the final, leading from the first lap, and eventually winning by more than two seconds with a 4:27.005. This year marked the first time the event was contested over 4km, having previously been 3km.
Winning over the new distance, Morris said, was “really special”.
“I didn’t know how I’d feel coming into the race being a defending champion, so that was a new experience. I just tried to stick to my processes, and I had support from my team around me. It was nice to finish it off,” said the British champion and former world record holder.
“It’s really nice to be able to share the podium with Josie. We’ve both been training really hard for it in Manchester, so to keep trying to push the standard within the British cohort is really nice.”
The USA’s Chloé Dygert, four times an individual pursuit world champion, claimed the bronze medal.
Hetty van de Wouw has won three world titles this week in Santiago.
(Image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix)
Elsewhere on the night in Santiago, Chile, the Netherlands’ Hetty van de Wouw continued to be the breakout star of the championships, breaking her own world record twice in the women’s kilometre time trial to earn her third world title of the competition. The benchmark in the event now stands at 1:03.121, more than a second faster than the previous 1:04.497.
Just three points separated fourth from first in the men’s omnium. Spain’s Albert Torres, having tallied 133, won by two points ahead of Japan’s Kazushige Kuboki and Belgium’s Lindsay de Vylder, the defending champion.
The five-day championships will come to a close on Sunday, with world titles on the line in the women’s points race, women’s keirin, men’s elimination race, men’s Madison and men’s sprint.
Having eased through qualifying, Great Britain’s Matthew Richardson will face Australia’s Leigh Hoffman in the semi-finals of the sprint competition; the winner will go on to face either Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) or Nicholas Paul (Trinidad and Tobago).
Find all the information you need to stream the action live through our how-to-watch guide.
