Callum Skinner and Jess Varnish won respective third titles at the 2014 British Cycling National Track Championships in Manchester on Saturday.
Scotland’s Skinner, 22, defeated Matt Crampton by two heats to one to add the men’s sprint crown to his kilo and keirin victories at the National Cycling Centre.
Varnish won the women’s team sprint with Dannielle Kahn, overcoming Katy Marchant and Victoria Williamson in the gold medal final.
“It has been fantastic,” said Skinner, who is part of the Great Britain Cycling Team.
“It’s been tight all the way through, just centimetres so it’s been so close and a good day’s racing. It’s good to win them when they’re close and if it was easy it wouldn’t be worth having
“There’s an incredible strength in depth here and they’re a pleasure to train with day-in-day-out and it’s been amazing."
The margin of victory was just five centimetres in the deciding ride with Crampton having levelled the tie after Skinner, who had qualified fastest, took the opening heat.
Philip Hindes defeated Team USN’s Lewis Oliva for bronze.
Varnish’s triumph was also closely contested as her West Midland’s team set a time of 33.969 seconds in the final, just 0.173 seconds quicker than North West A duo Marchant and Williamson.
Varnish has now defended three of the four titles she won in 2013 – the 500m time trial, sprint and team sprint – with the women’s keirin to come on Sunday.
North West B duo Rachel James and Helen Scott collected bronze against Scotland’s Eleanor Richardson and Kayleigh Brogan with a time of 34.998 seconds.
Asked if she had taken confidence from her third title of the week, Varnish said: “I don’t think about being confident, it’s just going out and executing and doing what I can do in each race.
“It gives me momentum and this is just the start of the season so we just want to build on this.”
Khan added: “I’m really happy (the hard work has paid off) and to get the opportunity to ride with Jess again and to defend our title from last year.
“We’ve come off a lot of racing and training recently so we were not as fresh compared to last year but we produced great rides today and we couldn’t have wished for anymore.”
Wiggle Honda’s Laura Trott added women’s scratch gold to her team pursuit title in a compelling race.
Trott was one of five riders to take two laps on the field, along with teammates Dani King and Elinor Barker, Pearl Izumi’s Katie Archibald and Dame Sarah Storey, and Team USN’s Emily Kay.
A burst of pace over the final 100 metres saw the 22-year-old distance her rivals to take the national jersey.
Kay took an excellent second with King third.
"I feel amazing," Trott said. "I’m really, really happy. I was disappointed with yesterday’s result (in the individual pursuit) after training hasn’t been going too well for last couple of weeks to be honest.
“I felt really good (today), we took a lap and I felt like we were cruising round. I was just really relaxed and it came into the sprint and it panned out just how I wanted.
“I waited and I was in control and I didn’t want anybody to get in the way of how I sprint. I took it on with a lap to go and it worked!”
An equally entertaining men’s points race went down to the final sprint as Spokes Racing Team’s Mark Stewart edged out Team Raleigh’s Mark Christian for the title.
Stewart won the penultimate sprint in the 30-kilometre race to move to 21 points with Christian behind on 18.
The Scot then ensured his victory with a point in the final sprint as Christian was unable to add to his tally.
NFTO Cycling’s Jon Mould was third on 16 points.
“I feel ecstatic,” Stewart said after the race.
“I knew it was a short race at just 120 laps and I knew from the start I had to be right at it. I knew Mark Christian and Jonathan Mould would be the men to watch and Tristian Robbins was really strong.
“I’ve got to thank a lot of people in that race, I have a lot of friends who were helping me out and I gave everything in the last ten laps.”
Results
Women's team sprint
Men's sprint
Women's scratch race
Men's points race
