Cuminestown cyclist Neah Evans teamed up with Elinor Barker from Wales to win an Olympic silver for Great Britain in the women’s madison.
A big late charge from Barker saw Britain win the last of the 12 sprints in the 120-lap race and move above the Netherlands as Italy’s Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini celebrated gold.
Italy finished with 37 points to Britain’s 31 and the Netherlands’ 28.
The Brits had high hopes and went in as world champions but Evans was pleased to emerge from a chaotic race with a place on the podium.
Evans, who also won silver at the 2020 Olympics in the team pursuit, said: “We stuck to our plan pretty well.
“We felt there were enough strong teams that we didn’t have to be 100% responsible for chasing it.
“It is so easy with hindsight (to think differently) but in the moment we made that decision and we still raced so well.
“The madison is so unpredictable.
“In the Euros we went in as favourites and we crashed.
“To come away with a medal is huge as there is nothing guaranteed.
“It is organised chaos or unorganised chaos out there.
“I’m delighted to get that medal.
“When you come in as world champions you can think ‘if only’…
“But it is a silver medal.”
Great Britain were defending champions with Katie Archibald and Dame Laura Kenny having won the inaugural Olympic women’s madison three years ago in Tokyo.
Barker, now a four-time Olympic medallist, admitted she wanted gold but refused to be downbeat.
She said: “We really, really wanted gold.
“We came in as world champions which meant we put that pressure on ourselves.
“We had a bit of a target on our back potentially.
“We said that it wouldn’t change the way we raced but it was hard not to feel like we had to take responsibility at times.
“Perhaps that is what we will pick up on in our analysis.
“There have been plenty of world champions this week who haven’t won a medal.
“Every single medal is huge for the team.
“I think with Neah medalling every single rider across our squad has a medal, which is awesome.”
Keith cheered home after gruelling race
Inverness’ Megan Keith’s Olympic dream ended in disappointment as she finished 23rd in the women’s 10,000m.
The 22-year-old completed the race in 33mins 19sec – well behind her personal best time of 30:36.84.
Despite struggling during the race, she never gave up and received a huge cheer from the Paris crowd when she was the final competitor crossing the finishing line.
Fellow Scot Eilish McColgan, who finished 15th, went straight over to console Keith as she completed the gruelling race.
Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet won gold in a time of 30:43.25 with Italy’s Nadia Battocletti in a national record time of 30:43.35 taking silver and Sifan Hassan (30:44.12) of the Netherlands claiming bronze.
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