Stanford bows out with European gold

Triathlon 12 Aug 22

Timing was everything on day two, as Non Stanford enjoyed a golden end to her triathlon career, earning Great Britain's first gold of the European Championships.

Jessica Roberts stormed to track cycling silver in the women’s scratch race only months after thinking of giving up the sport, while the men’s team pursuit and sprint both won bronze.

In the pool in Rome, 18-year-old Katie Shanahan moved from junior to senior European silver in a year in the women’s 200m backstroke, while Freya Anderson claimed only the second individual medal of her decorated career. 

For Olympic BMX Freestyle champion Charlotte Worthington, a gamble did not come off as two falls saw her finish eighth in the final in Munich.

Stanford enjoying a golden farewell 

Stanford, the 33-year-old from Bridgend, fought back from a tricky transition on the bike to claim victory in her final World Triathlon race to become European champion. 

The 2013 World champion completed the Olympic-distance race in 1:52:10 to hold off home favourite Laura Lindemann as France’s Emma Lombardi earned bronze. 

She said: “It's a complete surprise if I'm honest. This is actually my last ever World Triathlon race, I'm retiring this year and 2011 was the first time I represented Great Britain at a European Champs so it's quite fitting that this is the last time I will ever represent Great Britain.  

“To come away with gold is absolutely beyond my expectations.  

"I had a terrible second transition, something was wrong with my bike and I got really far behind and I thought I just have to stick to my own pace here because it's such a hard run course.” 

Trio of medals in the velodrome 

Carmarthen’s Roberts had claimed European Games gold in the madison three years ago but admitted two difficult years left her close to leaving the sport. 

Anita Stenberg of Norway caught Roberts, who took the front in the closing stages, to claim gold with Poland’s Nikola Wielowska completing the podium. 

Roberts said: “Obviously you go into a race hoping for a result but I just tried to put myself in the right position and it paid off. 

"I had a bit of a rough two years. I took five months off last year because of numerous things and I nearly quit the sport. 

"I'm really happy I took that break and just reset and when I've come back I tried just to enjoy the process and not put too much pressure on myself.  

“I've been working hard to get back to this level - hopefully I can build momentum from here." 

Roberts capped a successful day in the velodrome after Charlie Tanfield and Oliver Wood had claimed team pursuit bronze alongside Rhys Britton, Kian Emadi and William Tidball, defeating the Germans in the bronze medal race. 

That result was matched by Carlin, Hamish Turnbull and Alistair Fielding in the team sprint who completed the three-lap bronze medal final in 35.173 seconds, 0.677 seconds ahead of Poland. 

There was no medal for the women’s team pursuit as Josie Knight, Neah Evans, Anna Morris, Georgi Pfeiffer and Roberts were caught by France who claimed the bronze medal. 

Worthington gives her all 

Nobody could excuse Worthington of not giving it her all as she finished eighth in the women’s BMX Freestyle final. 

The Olympic champion took a risk on both her runs as she attempted a 720-degree flip but it did not come off either time. 

Worthington’s compatriot Sasha Pardoe was the highest placing Brit in sixth as Iveta Miculyčová of the Czech Republic claimed gold. 

She said: “It’s kind of tough to take because it feels like I made the wrong decision, I’m always an all-in kind of person as we know sometimes you don’t have to go that hard. 

“I think this whole build-up I have practiced being all-in on both runs which is great however sometimes you just need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture and a make a decision based off that on what to do on each run rather than blindly going into it. 

“But at the same time, if you hold back, you might wonder and always question, so I went all in again and it just didn’t pay off this time.” 

Anderson loves it when a plan comes together 

Team player Anderson got her individual reward as she claimed her second long course individual medal adding 100m freestyle bronze to the bronze she claimed in the 200m in 2020. 

The 21-year-old was part of the gold medal-winning mixed relay team in Tokyo, and earned four relay medals for England at the recent Commonwealth Games. 

Anderson ended just one hundredth of a second off France’s Charlotte Bonnet in silver as she finished in a time of 53.63 with Marrit Steenbergen of the Netherlands took gold. 

She said: “The race actually went to plan, which is not something that usually happens, but I’m really happy with the bronze.  

“I’m really happy to individually get the ball rolling, I’ll take that.” 

Anderson’s bronze came hot on the heels of Katie Shanahan’s silver in the women’s 200m backstroke as she upgraded her junior silver from last year for senior silver this time. 

The 18-year-old came home in 2:09.26 behind home favourite Margherita Panziera as Dora Molnar of Hungary claimed bronze. 

Commonwealth champion James Wilby finished in fourth in the men’s 100m breaststroke finale just four thousandths of a second off a medal but claimed bronze in the last event of the evening as he joined forces with Jacob Peters, Anna Hopkins and Medi Harris in the 4x100m mixed medley relay. 

Rowing set up for a stellar Saturday 

Great Britain will contest eight finals on Saturday with Ollie Wynne-Griffith and Tom George qualifying fastest in the men’s pair. 

The women’s double and men’s quadruple sculls came through their respective semi-finals and will also go for gold on Saturday. 

Wynne-Griffith said: “Another job done, another step up and we just need to do the same again tomorrow and we’ll see what we get.” 

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