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Jess Varnish began her attempt to retain four national titles at the 2014 British Cycling National Track Championships on Thursday evening, winning the women’s 500-metre time trial.
Varnish, riding for Team V-Sprint Racing, took the title in a time of 34.419 ride ahead of Vicky Williamson (VC Norwich) on 34.897 and Katy Marchant in bronze.
"I'm happy with how it went," said Varnish. "It was a good effort just to come off the back off training, to see where I'm at.
"It's nice to retain a title and the 500 is a really important event because we can see where we are at with standing laps for the team sprint."
Helen Scott was the early leader of the contest, the Performance Cycling Coaching rider posting an impressive 35.738. Scott’s time stood until Marchant and double junior world champion Danni Khan took to the track, before Varnish and Williamson swooped to take gold and silver in the final heat.
The evening’s racing got underway with the Para-cycling Pursuit C1-C5 Mixed event, with Jon Gildea (Seamons CC) taking the national title ahead of Paralympic Development Programme rider Jaco van Gass (Team Battle Back) and Louis Rolfe (Cambridge CC). Gildea took gold with a time of 4:49.589, over 11 seconds ahead of van Gass’ factored time of 5:00.798.
"I went too quick to start with, just got over excited," said Gildea after his event. "I went too quick for the first five laps and paid for it at the end, I could have gone a bit quicker but I'm still learning."
The world-beating tandem pairing of Lora Turnham and Corrine Hall continued their winning ways in the Para-cycling Pursuit BVI Mixed event, taking the national title in a time of 4:17.119 after factoring, beating the pairing of Rhiannon Henry and Lauryn Therin in silver, with Steve Bate and Adam Duggleby bronze.
The men’s kilometre time trial rounded out the evening’s action in Manchester with The Rigmar Racer’s Callum Skinner taking the title in an impressive time of 1:01.843, with Matt Crampton silver with 1:02.636, while bronze went to Matt Rotherham, the Sport City Velo rider stopping the clock on 1.03.497.
"I wasn't confident at all, Crampo (Matt Crampton) has been doing the kilo every year and Matt Rotherham is an amazing kilo rider and I know I had good form but I wasn't expecting to win," a delighted Skinner said after receiving his national champions jersey.
"It's a massive jump for me; my last PB was a 1:03.2 last year in Manchester which shows great progression over the year so I couldn't be happier."
Early leader Tom Baker was soon usurped from the hotseat, Lewis Oliva bettering his time of 1:05.034 by almost a second before he too was pushed from a podium position as Rotherham, Skinner and Crampton went faster.
Kian Emadi, 2013 national champion, was listed to start but did not compete, guaranteeing a change of hands for the national champions jersey.
The championships continue tomorrow and over the weekend. Tickets are still available for a selection of sessions. For more information or to purchase please click here.
Results
Para-cycling pursuit C1-C5 mixed
Para-cycling pursuit BVI mixed
Women's 500m time trial
Men's kilometre time trial
