British Track Cycling Championships.: Jess Varnish defends sprint title
Friday 26 September 2014 23:50, UK
Jess Varnish retained her women's sprint national title after going head-to-head with Katy Marchant at the British Track Cycling Championships.
Varnish, representing Team V-Sprint Racing, is now halfway to defending her four titles in Manchester having won the 500 metres time trial on Thursday.
She finished the individual sprint showdown in 12.153 seconds on Friday, with Marchant taking silver and Vicky Williamson claiming bronze, and will now seek to complete a clean sweep in the keirin and team sprint events.
"I'm really, really happy with today and just pleased to get a good result in the sprint," Varnish told www.britishcycling.org.uk.
"It's good I retained it but it's not something which crossed my mind, although I'm happy to have backed it up two years running.
"It's the team sprint on Saturday which will be good and hopefully we will be quite a strong team."
There was no such luck for Olympic champion Laura Trott, though, as she was usurped in the women's individual pursuit final by Pearl Izumi's Katie Archibald.
The young Scot, who also finished ahead of Trott in the penultimate heat, took gold with a time of three minutes 34.869secs, some 2.425 seconds ahead of her rival.
Jaco van Gass, racing for Team Battle Back, took gold in the 200m FSTT C1-5 event, while Andy Tennant took the men's pursuit final ahead of Steve Burke and Callum Skinner won the final gold of the day in the men's keirin final.
