cycling Trott wins again but Scot is top of her list of targets
LAURA Trott further cemented her status as the new darling of British track cycling by taking double gold at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow at the weekend.
The 20-year-old Olympic and world champion stormed to victory in the omnium on the final day of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup yesterday, adding to her gold in the team pursuit from Friday.
To the delight of the home crowd, Trott claimed a win in the individual pursuit and finished second in the 500m time trial of the six discipline event to finish top overall. Her efforts received a standing ovation from the packed velodrome which has seen some 20,000 fans through its doors over the course of the three-day event.
Trott said: "I wanted to win. I was in silver position and thought: 'I'm not having that, no way'. Coming into this being double world and Olympic champion and going home with silver? It just wasn't going to happen. I love winning. I love the feeling."
She admitted, however, that her new-found iconic status was still taking some getting used to. "I went for a coffee with my mum and dad before racing and this little girl came up and said: 'I have a poster of you on my wall'. That was the cutest thing."
Standing in the velodrome bearing the name of Britain's most decorated Olympian, Trott made no bones about the fact she hoped to one day surpass his achievements. "The Olympics is the thing I want to win most – and I want to get Sir Chris Hoy's record," she said.
Trott's win was Britain's only medal of the final day of competition, taking their tally to six, including a silver for the men's team sprint trio of Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Ed Clancy.
In the women's keirin, Becky James and Jess Varnish – who took gold in the women's team sprint on Friday – finished fifth and ninth respectively.
Olympic and world sprint champion Jason Kenny was not among the action yesterday, forced to retire from the competition following his crash in the keirin final on Saturday evening. Lewis Oliva, riding for the Welsh Team USN, also missed the sprint following a crash in his keirin semi-final. That left Philip Hindes as the sole British entrant, but he suffered his own woes in his heat against Czech rider Pavel Kelemen.
A mechanical problem with his wheel sent the Olympic team sprint champion tumbling down the steep track banking. Kelemen, who also crashed in a separate incident, went on to win the round.
German Stefan Boetticher was the eventual victor in the men's sprint, his compatriot Robert Forstemann second and Russia's Denis Dmitriev third.
Hoy signalled his intention to get back to training in earnest at a camp in Australia next month. "It will just take a bit of time to get back into race mode," he said. "You can't just go from nought to flat out. By the end of the camp I'll be back in the groove."
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