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Commonwealth Games 2014: Laura Trott wins points race gold for England Commonwealth Games 2014: Laura Trott wins points race gold for England
(about 1 hour later)
Laura Trott has won Commonwealth Games gold for England in the women’s 25km points race. From sickbed to saviour. Laura Trott was able to hold down only porridge a few days ago but the weekend finished with England’s golden girl tasting victory once again. Having being diagnosed with a kidney infection on Thursday, Trott’s dramatic triumph in the 25km points race ensured a return to the top of the podium and provided England with only their second triumph of the Games at this track.
Trott won two of the 10 sprints on offer, with Wales’s Elinor Barker taking three, but the former’s consistency – registering in all but four of the scoring laps – kept her towards the top of the standings throughout the race. It was a win, she said, that compared with her two Olympic titles in 2012. This one, however, was arguably more impressive, coming as it did after doctors had recorded a worryingly high temperature only days previously. Trott’s recovery was immense, digging deep into energy reserves, that had been eviscerated by illness, to edge past Wales’s Elinor Barker and win at the line after half an hour of gruelling sprints.
Barker’s final sprint victory saw her take the lead with 10 laps remaining but Trott moved level by claiming three points to her rival’s two at the finale. Trott did not initially realise her success, congratulating her friend and British team-mate, Barker, for securing the Commonwealth title. Both riders finished the captivating race on 37 points, yet the result went down to the final sprint position and Trott’s second-place surge was just enough to secure victory.
Trott’s superior finish then separated the pair by the finest of margins, with Scotland’s Katie Archibald completing a home nations clean sweep of the medals with bronze on 33 points. “After the week I’ve had it is right up there with the Olympics,” said Trott. “I am so over the moon right now, it’s so hard for me to describe. I rocked up alongside Elinor and said: ‘Well done, Commonwealth champion.’ Then it came up on the screen and I thought: ‘Oh crap, she’s going to think I said that on purpose.’
Trott told BBC Radio Five Live: “It’s absolutely unbelievable, I’ve had such a bad week of it with the kidney infection. It really set me back and knocked my morale a bit. I’ve hardly eaten for two days, I’ve been living off porridge and I don’t like porridge. I felt so bad at time during that race but I’m really happy to have pulled it off.” “Having my parents here again, I’ve been worrying them sick over the last few days because they know how much it means to me. For me to underperform is really upsetting for them; they see how upset I am. To come away and win is unbelievable. When it came up I’d won and the crowd went mad, I was so happy.”
Trott’s triumph was England’s second gold of the day, and third overall on the track. Trott has never been one to let obstacles get in the way. She was born four weeks prematurely with a collapsed lung and developed asthma aged two, yet in London two years ago it was her omnium performance and team pursuit gold alongside Joanna Rowsell and Dani King that endeared her to the nation.
Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott are responsible for the other two, having celebrated a second tandem triumph in the 1,000-metre B2 time-trial. Her stock has risen further after this display, an effort of guts and courage days after barely being able to get on a bike.
Paracyclist Thornhill and her pilot Scott followed up their day one victory in the B2 sprint with another rousing performance at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. Just as they did on Thursday, Thornhill and Scott nudged Scottish favourites Aileen McGlynn and Louise Haston into silver with a time of 1min 0.87sec. On her illness, Trott said: “The evening before the individual pursuit I didn’t feel very well. I went to the doctor and he said nothing was wrong. Then I woke him up at 5.30am and said: ‘Something is really wrong with my kidneys.’ It turns out I had a kidney infection.
Thornhill and Scott, racing last and with the time to beat staring down at them from the big screen, came out with a bang, gaining a second inside just two time-splits. “It wasn’t the best preparation. I hadn’t fed well for 48 hours – I was living on porridge, which obviously isn’t great. I’d put in all the hard work and knew I wasn’t going well but because of all the training I was doing I didn’t want to give in. This morning I woke up and I was hungry. I actually wanted food. I knew it was going to be a good day. I had a good feed on the way up, rested as much as I could and it paid off.” Rowsell captured gold here on Friday but, other than that, this has been a disappointing Games for England on the track. Jason Kenny won silver in the men’s sprint earlier in the week but he could not qualify for the final in the keirin.
They continued making gains and had a commanding lead of 1.455sec by the halfway stage, making the second 500m a case of mere preservation. They ended up 1.584 in front of the Scottish duo but were given an appreciative reception by the Glaswegian crowd. Jess Varnish, though, had earned bronze in the women’s sprint, controversially taking a 1-0 lead over the Malaysian Fatehah Mustapa, who was penalised for moving off line in the first of their best-of-three contest. Varnish comfortably triumphed in the second race and admitted afterwards that her opponents’ infringement had spurred her on.
“She just elbowed me,” said Varnish. “Some people come 5cm off the red line and still get disqualified but she came way out of the line.
“It’s annoying because you always want to cross the finish line in first place but we didn’t even complete the race because it was that dangerous. I’m quite sure that I would have come round her anyway but I’m just happy to get the bronze medal.
“I was more determined to beat her because it was a dangerous move. She is a nice girl and a nice competitor but at the same time when you are on the track you want to beat these girls.”