OLYMPIC gold medal winner Katie Archibald was in typically upbeat mood yesterday, despite confirmation that she had fractured her wrist during her women’s Madison gold triumph with Manon Lloyd at the UCI Track World Cup meeting in Glasgow.
Archibald and Lloyd, on her 20th birthday, tumbled to the track after 18 laps of the 80-lap event before responding to win the first global women’s Madison competition.
The Scot, 22, took to Twitter to post photos of the crash and her visibly injured wrist. She underwent X-rays at Glasgow Royal Infirmary yesterday morning which showed a fracture of the distal radius (forearm) and scaphoid of her left arm.
The Olympic team pursuit champion from Milngavie was the star attraction for the home crowd and she was fit enough to greet fans before the final session of action at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
“Most people have been really glad that it’s not my autograph hand that’s hurt but it was just a lot of ‘get well soons’,” Archibald said.
She had a fitful night’s sleep after delaying her trip to hospital. Archibald said: “I thought, ‘I’m not going to go to A&E on a Saturday night, Bonfire Night, it’s going to be hell’. I couldn’t sleep. I waited until what I thought was definitely the next day and went off to A&E.”
Archibald is scheduled to see a specialist in Manchester today to determine the full extent of the injury, but it should not impact on her preparation for next April’s Track World Championships in Hong Kong.
It is another enforced period away from the track, though, after Archibald missed much of the 2015-16 season absent after falling off her motorbike and sustaining knee and elbow injuries.
She had remained in good form after the Olympics, winning the omnium at the London Six Day last week and omnium and individual pursuit gold at last month’s European Track Championships.
On Saturday, Archibald wiped away blood from her abrasions before joking about crashes being part and parcel of her job. A day later she played down her robustness, despite detailing her will to overcome the pain and win ahead of France. “I think everyone thinks they’re tough, they like to be the big man,” she said. “I knew I’d hurt it as soon as I went down. I went to shake it and it wasn’t a shaking job. I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll see if I can get back on’, and I got back on. ‘I’ll see if we can do the first sling’ – and we couldn’t really. But we had to keep going anyway. When
I was slinging Manon in, I needed to be gripping my own bars with just one hand which, it turns out you don’t need to grip that hard, I’ve only just learnt. When it comes to sprinting and things, it was mainly the lunge for the line. I was like,
‘I don’t want to, but just do it’. It was definitely worth it. It was close.”
On the track yesterday, Jack Carlin, 19, from Paisley, underlined his potential by taking gold in the men’s team sprint in the final session of the afternoon.
He may still be a fledgling talent but with his English team-mates Ryan Owens and Joe Trueman took an impressive victory against France in the final to take GB’s medal tally for the weekend to five golds.
The trio announced themselves on the scene with a European Championship silver medal two weeks ago, a result Carlin admits gave them a significant boost. “That definitely gave us confidence,” he said. “We went to the Europeans as a development opportunity but then we obviously did really well. That gave us a massive boost to think that we can rub shoulders with the best.”
This World Cup was the biggest event Carlin has ridden in his home country and, having said before the weekend that he could not wait to ride in front of home fans, the reality did not disappoint, with the adrenaline helping him to lead the team out in a PB-equalling 17.3 seconds. “I’ve always wanted to race in front of a home crowd,” he said. “There was such a great atmosphere it was definitely a good experience.”
That home crowd included Hoy. “I’ve grown up watching Chris compete," Carlin added. "With him being from Scotland and what he’s done, he’s an inspiration. “I’ve had chats with him and he’s a really good guy. I think he would offer us advice any time he was around.”
Dundee’s Mark Stewart, 21, capped off a tough but impressive weekend with eighth place in the Madison alongside Oliver Wood to add to his gold in the team pursuit and fourth place in the points race. “It’s been a long weekend but there have been lot of positives,” he said. “Our team pursuit is coming on and that’s the main goal, but I really enjoy bunch racing. Because it’s Olympic year, there’s a lot of freedom so we’re doing a bit of everything, which is quite hard. I don’t want to be a jack-of-all-trades, but’s a good time to do it – expand your riding and get as much experience as possible."
Elsewhere, Emily Kay won an outstanding gold medal in the omnium, taking victory by a single point at the very last moment.
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