Katie Archibald has taken a second gold at the 2020 European Track Championships, winning the points race on the fourth and penultimate day of racing.
After becoming European team pursuit champion, Archibald turned her attention to the points race, winning the first two sprints, and then the fifth, to give her a commanding lead at the halfway stage.
Archibald then attacked with 30 laps remaining, Maria Martins (Portugal), Karolina Karasiewicz (Poland) and Italy’s Silvia Zanardi going with her.
Zanardi had brought Archibald back to within ten points going into the final sprint, which was then won by the Brit, confirming her European points race title.
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“I get drawn into the sprints and it puts me in danger, so against a different field I would have been kicking myself as I was really in danger – the right attack could have done me in, so I’m glad I kept my head and didn’t let the wrong move go and I was there to contend at the finish,” Archibald said afterwards.
In the men’s points race, Ethan Vernon finished fifth overall, tallying 18 points to Spain’s gold medal winner Sebastian Mora Vedri’s 51 points.
GB’s Sophie Capewell made the finals of the women’s keirin after a third-place finish in her heat, narrowly beaten in the sprint for the bronze medal by Spain’s Helena Casas Roige. Katy Marchant had not made the finals after coming fourth in her heat, progressing through to the minor finals and eventually finishing 12th overall after being relegated.
The fifth and final day of competition will see the men’s kilo as well as the men’s and women’s Madison races.
Great Britain currently top the medal table with nine medals, including six golds, while Russia and Italy sit second and third with ten medals each, Russia having four golds to Italy’s two.
