European Track Championships: Great British men and women to race for team pursuit gold
Thursday 16 October 2014 19:09, UK
Great Britain’s men’s and women’s team pursuit squads will both race for gold on day two of the European Track Championships in Guadeloupe.
The men’s quartet of Ed Clancy, Andy Tennant, Jon Dibben and Owain Doull defeated Switzerland in their semi-final and will now face Germany in the final.
However, they will have to improve significantly to retain their European title given that their time of 4 minutes 18.246 seconds was almost two seconds slower than their German counterparts over the 4km distance. Russia will face France for the bronze medal.
In the women’s event, the British team of Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Katie Archibald and Ciara Horne comfortably booked their place in the final by beating Germany in the last four in a time of 4min 46.322sec.
They will now race for gold against Russia, who defeated Lithuania in the other semi-final but were over five seconds slower than Britain.
In the team sprint events, both the British men’s and women’s teams failed to progress to the medal finals. Matt Crampton, Lewis Oliva and Callum Skinner could only qualify sixth fastest, while Rosie Blount and Katy Marchant were only seventh fastest.
The team pursuit and team sprint finals, as well as the women’s points race and and men’s scratch race, will all take place from 11pm BST on Thursday.
For a guide to the championships, click here
