There was no stopping Jess Varnish as she made it two titles from two events at the 2014 British Cycling National Track Championships.
Heading to Manchester, all eyes were on Varnish as she looked to back up her incredible four gold medals from last year’s event. And after kicking things off in style by defending her 500m time trial title on day one, Varnish was at it again 24 hours later, this time claiming victory in the individual sprint.
Varnish, riding for Team V-Sprint Racing, finished ahead of Katy Marchant with Vicky Williamson settling for bronze as she retained her title for a further 12 months.
“I’m really, really happy with that and just pleased to get a good result in the sprint,” Varnish said.
“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 next which will be good and hopefully we will be quite a strong team.”
Kilo champion Callum Skinner was on form as he won the men’s keirin title 24 hours after his first triumph.
In the gold medal ride off of the men’s pursuit, it was Steven Burke who went off like a missile in a hope of catching Andy Tennant, but it wasn’t to be as the latter was left victorious while Jon Dibben claimed bronze.
“It was a good race against Burkey in an exciting final.” Tennant said.
“It’s not often I get to ride for myself in individual events, I’m a part of the team pursuit team and that’s more my thing and my focus tends to go into it because it’s an Olympic event.
“The Nationals gives you an opportunity to ride other events which you wouldn’t normally do so it was nice.”
And in the women’s pursuit Katie Archibald got one over reigning champion Laura Trott, with current world champion Joanna Rowsell taking bronze in a battle against Elinor Barker.
“I’m chuffed!” Archibald said. “I’m happy to back it up, it’s something I have struggled with for a lot of my racing career so to do it by half a second, it’s something I’m happy with.
“I asked not to be locked against Laura (wanted to forget it was her friend) so my coach was just telling me what I was doing and I wasn’t thinking about her at all, so I’m glad it worked out in the end.”
© Sportsbeat 2014