Katie Archibald bags points race silver to take World Track medal tally to four

Katie Archibald took her fourth medal of the 2021 UCI Track Cycling World Championships as she claimed silver in the points race on the final day in Roubaix, France.

The Briton was second behind Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky with 72 points, four behind the champion and 12 better off than third-placed Kirsten Wild of Holland.

The silver added to Archibald’s omnium gold and the bronzes she had secured in the team pursuit and madison.

The 27-year-old, who won her second Olympic gold medal with victory in the madison in Tokyo during the summer, said: “(I’m) really pleased.

“It’s almost like the harder it is, the happier you are. I really struggled there, and I think that was all I had. When you’re fighting for something and you get it…maybe at 20 laps to go I realised I was fighting for silver, so it felt like a victory.”

It was the only medal for Great Britain on the concluding day of action, with Ethan Hayter and Ollie Wood finishing fourth in the madison, and Ethan Vernon sixth in the elimination race.

GB ended up with an overall tally of eight medals from the championships, including two golds – Hayter was the men’s omnium champion.

Head coach Jon Norfolk said: “We wanted to come here to perform, good performances from our athletes is what we were looking for, whether that resulted in a medal or not – sometimes performance and result can be two different things.

“I think the average age is 23 years old in the squad, so we have experienced Olympians who have extended their season to come here, and we have younger athletes for whom this is their first World Championships, and some of those have medalled, which is really encouraging.

“It really kind of fuels that enthusiasm and momentum we want to create for Paris (the 2024 Olympics).”