Kenny's Olympic spirit leads Great Britain to first Track World Cup gold in London

BySportsbeat

Updated 15/12/2018 at 17:53 GMT

The Olympic buzz came roaring back for Laura Kenny after leading Great Britain to a hat-trick of TISSOT UCI Track World Cup medals in London.

Laura Kenny

Image credit: Getty Images

It was in the Lee Valley VeloPark where Kenny bagged the first two of her four Olympic titles, thriving in the atmosphere of a home support en route to team pursuit and omnium titles.

And as she rode to her third successive team pursuit World Cup title alongside Katie Archibald, Neah Evans and Ellie Dickinson, all those memories came flooding back.

The British quartet were unstoppable as they caught the American team with more than one kilometre to go, bringing the house down on the opening night in the capital.

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"I love this track, the crowd are always amazing and it holds some really special memories for me," she said.

"Every time I step out on this track I get the exact same buzz that I had at the Olympics. It just feels like home, I like it.

"Me and Katie are riding the Madison together so I guess you always set out to win so we'll try our best. Although we don't have the best track record together. But you never know."

For Archibald, meanwhile, victory in London meant more than just the gold medal around her neck.

A home event allowed family a rare chance to come and watch, while brother John joined her atop the team pursuit podium with gold of his own racing for HUUB Wattbike.

Laura Kenny of Great Britain

Image credit: Getty Images

Now the attention rapidly switches to next March, with the World Championships in Apeldoorn allowing them to see exactly how they sit ahead of the next Olympic Games and Tokyo 2020.

"I think we really got in the Americans heads so they've gone into that ride having taken out their omnium rider, and you saw the leak in the boat really," she said.

"The gap came back far faster than we thought it would.

"I guess we can go home content with what we set out at the start of that ride but we're more eager to prove what we can do because that's what we'll need to do come the World Championships.

"Every nation is here and every nation has a team. So I'm excited for that challenge next."

The opening night in London also saw the men's sprint trio celebrate a medal, with Ryan Owens, Phil Hindes and Joe Truman bagging team silver.

The British team battled through to the gold medal race but the Netherlands' Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland proved too much.

The Dutch three stopped the clock in 42.789 seconds, a second ahead of the hosts while Germany rounded out the top three.

Elinor Barker, Laura Kenny, Eleanor Dickinson and Katie Archibald of Great Britain

Image credit: Getty Images

Finally, a youthful men's team pursuit squad produced a staggering performance to secure bronze, coming from a second behind to pip Italy to the line by less than a tenth of a second.

Matthew Walls, Will Tidball, Ethan Vernon and Fred Wright had looked out of contention, struggling to find their rhythm early on as Italy shot out of the blocks.

But the British quartet didn't give up and, spurred on by the home crowd, stopped the clock in 3:59.609 – a monumental effort given their position in the race.

Saturday's action will see Olympic champion Elinor Barker take to the track in the multi-event omnium, while Rio 2016 bronze medallist Katy Marchant lines up in the women's sprint.

The men's keirin also takes centre stage as does the men's Madison, an event that makes its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.

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