The Welsh pair of Ella Barnwell and Josh Tarling delighted the Newport crowd with emphatic victories at the British National Track Championships, as 13 more national champions were crowned on the penultimate day of competition.

Reigning champion Barnwell retained her Women’s Scratch Race title in a close-fought battle, edging out Anna Morris and last night’s Women’s Individual Pursuit champion Neah Evans.

After also winning her qualifier earlier in the day Carmarthenshire’s Barnwell showed great poise to hold off her rivals in the closing stages and secure a fourth senior national title.

Despite only turning 18 last month Joshua Tarling rode fearlessly throughout the 120 lap Points Race, building up an early lead by scoring points in the first five sprints. Charlie Tanfield briefly took the lead after lapping the field, but was then lapped himself to quickly restore Tarling to pole position.

In total Tarling scored in eight of the 10 sprints and took a lap on the field on his way to a winning total of 53 points, and try as they might the pair of Oscar Nilsson Julien (39 points) and John Archibald (38 points) found themselves unable to close the deficit.

Para-cycling events

Fin Graham made it two national champion’s jerseys in two days with a commanding victory in the Men’s C3 Pursuit, enjoying a victory margin of more than 20 seconds over Ben Hetherington and Henry Urand. This was Hetherington’s first para-cycling race on the track since a serious injury sustained competing in a club 10 time-trial in 2019, and his delight was clear for all to see.

In the C1-2 Matthew Robertson proved too strong for Ryan Taylor and Sam Ruddock to take the title, while in the C4 Martin Hailstone got the better of Nicholas Fairfield. Will Bjergfelt was the winner in the C5, with Blaine Hunt second and David Murphy third.

In the Women’s C1-3 Pursuit Daphne Schrager stormed to victory in a time of 4:05.004, with Amelia Cass second and Katie Toft third. In the C5 classification Morgan Newberry took the gold ahead of Emma Tod.

In the Para-cycling B Pursuit races Chris McDonald (piloted by Chris Latham) took the men’s competition convincingly, with Brad Gauntlett (piloted by Tim May) and Nadeem Mughal (piloted by Alex Cook) completing the podium. In the women’s event Sophie Unwin (piloted by Jenny Holl) set an impressive time of 3:28.828 in a non-national championship race.

Men’s events

Matt Rotherham won an entertaining Men’s 1,000m Time Trial competition, with less than a second between the three podium places. Rotherham set a blistering time of 1:01.008 to sit in pole position ahead of Harvey McNaughton (1:01.919) with just Jonny Wale left to ride.

While Rotherham waited nervously, defending champion Wale fell just under three tenths of a second slower to take the silver.

Team Inspired claimed the top four spots in the Men’s Sprint competition, with Jack Carlin adding a national title to the Olympic bronze he secured in the same event last summer, after beating teammate Joe Truman in straight legs in the final. The imperious Carlin qualified fastest and didn’t lose a single sprint all day en route to victory. In the battle for bronze Hamish Turnbull defeated Hayden Norris.

Women’s events

Ellie Stone was a surprise winner of the Women’s Keirin, riding brilliantly in the final to surge ahead of Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell for a first senior national title.

Stone required the repechages to progress to the semi-final, where she finished third, behind Capewell and last night’s Women’s Sprint winner Rhian Edmunds, but caught the field off-guard in the final and victory never looked in doubt from then on.

In the Women’s Team Pursuit competition, the Brother UK-Orientation Marketing quartet of Ellen Bennett, Grace Lister, Holly Ramsey and Isabel Sharp caught their Liv CC – Halo Films opponents (Katie-Ann Calton, Ella Jamieson, Matilda McKibben and Awen Roberts) in 2:33.850.

Full results from day three can be found here, with more information on the rest of the weekend’s action here. You can also catch up on all of the action on YouTube here.

All images ©CyclingShorts.cc | www.chrismaher.co.uk

Dan Bigham added a sixth national title to his growing collection with victory in the individual pursuit on day one of the British National Track Championships in Newport, after breaking the national record in qualifying earlier in the day.

Returning to the track after his British Hour Record success in October last year, he qualified fastest by more than three and a half seconds over the 4,000m, setting up a gold medal ride against friend and former team-mate Charlie Tanfield. Despite Tanfield shaving a second off his qualifying time, Bigham led throughout in the final to take a commanding victory.

The bronze was taken by Kyle Gordon in 4:14.589, following victory over Michael Gill.

The first medal of the championships was awarded to Lora Fachie, piloted by Georgia Holt, as the pair began their new partnership in style with victory in the women’s tandem sprint in straight rounds. A gold medallist at the Rio and Tokyo Paralympic Games in the individual pursuit, this was a rare foray into the world of sprinting for Fachie, and the pair go again in the kilo on Sunday. Nia Holt and Amy Cole took the silver.

Evans however still had more in the tank, and shaved off another half of a second to take the national title with a time of 3:28.470, having led Morris throughout. In the battle for bronze, Kate Richardson edged out Sophie Lankford with a time of 3:35.566.

Double Tokyo silver medallist Fin Graham won an entertaining Paracycling Mixed Scratch Race, with a blistering final lap proving too much for Will Bjergfelt in second and Martin Hailstone in third. Graham will look to make it a double tomorrow in the Men’s C1-5 Individual Pursuit.

The Team Inspired quartet of Jack Carlin, Ali Fielding, Joe Truman and Hamish Turnbull took a commanding victory in the Men’s Team Sprint, first qualifying fastest in 43.738 and then catching their opponents SES Racing en route to victory in the semi-final with a time of 44.342.

Team East Midlands (James Bunting, Marcus Hiley, Harry Ledingham Horn and Hayden Norris) were their opponents in the final, but were unable to stop Team Inspired, who took the victory by just over a second. Glasgow Track RCA took bronze with victory over Enhanced.

The final national champion’s jersey of the night went to Rhian Edmunds of Wales Racing Academy, who battled to a thrilling victory over defending champion Sophie Capewell in a deciding leg.

Having defeated both Milly Tanner in the 1/8 final and Lowri Thomas in the semi-finals in straight legs, she then took a 1-0 lead over Capewell in the final. However, Team Sprint world championships bronze medallist Capewell battled back in the second to even things up and set up a decider in the final race of the day.

With a home crowd behind her Edmunds dug deep to take the victory, before a victory lap draped in the red dragon.

Emma Finucane took bronze with a straight legs victory over Lowri Thomas.

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Full results from day one can be found here, with more information on the rest of the weekend’s action here. You can also watch all of the action from day one on YouTube here.

All images ©CyclingShorts.cc | www.chrismaher.co.uk