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Great Britain's women's and men's pursuit teams both won gold and took their respective European titles on the first day of the European Track Championships with the women’s squad setting yet another world record in the process.
Laura Trott, Dani King, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald beat Poland in the 4km pursuit final beating the world record they had set previously in qualifying by over a second to take a gold medal and the 2013 European title. The Great Britain foursome were always the favourites to win going into the final but they eventually beat the Polish squad by almost ten seconds finishing in a time of 4:26.556.
In the men's event, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Owain Doull and Andy Tennant held off the Russian team’s efforts to take gold, winning by just two tenths of a second. At the conclusion of the 16 laps they recorded a time of 4:02.258 to earn them both the gold medal and the European champions' jerseys.
In the women’s team sprint, Jess Varnish and Becky James found themselves in the minor final against the Netherlands. After a strong ride posting a time of 33.771 they took the win and the bronze medal by nearly half a second ahead of the Dutch team. The gold medal was won by Russia who beat Olympic Champions Germany over the two lap race to the line.
In the women’s points race, Dani King finished just one point behind the eventual winner Kirstin Wild of the Netherlands earning her a silver medal.
The men's sprint team, included the Olympic gold-medallists Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes as well as newly crowned National Kilo champion Kian Emadi in the man three spot. After qualifying they found themselves in the minor final against Russia with France and Germany qualifying for the gold medal final later that evening.
In the end the Great Britain team just lost out on a podium place to the Russians by 15 hundredths of a second placing them fourth overall. Germany went on to win gold and the European title.
Today will see the first day of the Omnium for both men and women as well as both men’s and women’s individual sprint events. We will be bringing a round up from each day’s action in the Netherlands.
All the evening’s finals are available to watch here live from the Omnisport Arena in Apeldoorn.
Results
Men's team sprint
Women's team sprint
Men's team pursuit
Women's team pursuit
Women's points race
Men's points race
