By Gareth James
Emma Finucane has revealed she is even more proud of retaining her sprint world title than she was in winning it for the first time a year ago.
The Welsh cycling superstar retained her women’s individual sprint title for her second gold medal of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Denmark on Friday night.
The 21-year-old, who took three medals at the Paris Olympics, saw off Dutch rider Hetty van de Wouw in Friday’s final to the add to the women’s team sprint gold medal she won earlier in the week, and to successfully defend the title she won in Glasgow last summer.
“The first one (world title) you don’t expect it almost, I was a bit of an underdog, and no one really knew me,” Finucane said.
“People knew my name, but I was mid-field, whereas now I have raced in the rainbow jersey all year, I have dealt with the expectation and the pressure.
“It was hard today, but I am really happy that I overcame a lot today and conducted and composed myself on the track. Every ride was different, it was fast, I’m really proud.
“I felt really confident on this track. I knew my strengths. Off the back of the Olympics, I was exhausted, those two events in the seven-day period were enormous for me.
“And then to come back here and reset is really hard. I knew what I needed to do on the track, and I executed every round. I’m just so proud of who I am and where my career is going.”
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Up against van de Wouw, who had ridden an impressive event, Finucane seemed to breeze through each ride, growing in confidence throughout the final and taking the first win.
The second race saw Finucane come out all guns blazing, clearly with no plans to give away her rainbow stripes.
Using the height of the track, Finucane put down an incredible pace, leaving van de Wouw in her wake for Finucane to take the gold medal and back-to-back world titles.
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Finucane’s team-mate Sophie Capewell was beaten to bronze by Japan’s Mina Sato, but it was another night of success for Great Britain in Ballerup as the team collected five medals in all.
Jess Roberts took silver in the women’s omnium despite pulling her foot out of her pedal in the points race, while Josh Charlton had silver in the men’s individual pursuit, with Dan Bigham beating Charlie Tanfield to bronze in his final race for the national team.
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Bigham, an Olympic silver medallist in the team pursuit this summer, will now focus his efforts on a new performance role with road team Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe.
“I’ve done enough of these to drag myself kicking and screaming through them,” the 33-year-old said.
“I just said this is the last four minutes I’ll be riding at this level and on this stage. You look up and realise this is pretty damned cool.
“It was emotional. I definitely surprised myself there, I had a good back end to the race which I didn’t expect myself to have, so it was great to do a good ride.”
Joe Truman took bronze in the men’s 1km time trial, taking Britain’s first world medal in the event since Sir Chris Hoy won gold in 2007, and his own first medal at this level since 2018 following injuries.
“It’s been six years and I’ve been training so hard,” Truman said. “I have had two major injuries in that time as well which set me back, but I’ve had a really good run for this last year and a half. To come here and get a medal, I am really happy.”
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Emma Finucane Pays Tribute To Team Behind The GB Team After Striking More Gold