Katy Marchant claimed Great Britain’s only medal on the final day of the Track Cycling World Championships with bronze in the women’s keirin in Denmark.
The 31-year-old timed her finish perfectly after seemingly being ridden out of the medals.
She pipped team-mate Emma Finucane on the line after the 21-year-old world sprint champion ran out of steam, dropping down from the gold-medal position at the bell to finish fourth.
Finucane faltered under pressure from Japan’s Mina Sato, who was a worthy winner, while the Netherlands’ Hetty van de Wouw rode through to claim silver.
“You never really know quite what other people’s plans are going to be, but I was massively just focusing on myself,” said Leeds-born Marchant, who also finished third in the 500m time trial in Ballerup and won gold in the team sprint.
“I wanted to correct a few things that maybe resulted in a fourth place for me [in the keirin] at the [Olympic] Games, and yes I am really happy to be able to scrape a medal.”
Finucane said she did not regret her decision to hit the front early after putting in a bold move to add a third gold medal of the championships, after winning the sprint and team sprint.
“Coming into that last lap I gave it 100%,” she added. “I am really proud of what I have done this week and the whole women’s team as well, who have won amazing medals and it’s been such a good time. I am proud, but glad it is over.”
The British team have enjoyed a stellar season, maintaining the form they showed at the Paris Olympics with 13 medals at the Worlds.
They finished second in the overall medal table, while the women’s team weighed in with all four of GB’s gold medals.
“It has been hard but the medals are worth winning,” said Marchant. “We really used each other. Especially for today, me and Emma really bounced off each other.
“The competition is high and the standard is really good in the women’s sprint programme now. Every day we are trying to beat the best in the world because we have the number one in the world [Finucane] in our team.
“It’s a great environment to be a part of, but I am not saying it is easy.”
The Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen claimed his sixth consecutive men’s world sprint title after beating team-mate Jeffrey Hoogland in the final.
It was the 16th world gold medal of the 27-year-old sprinter’s career, with Japan’s Kaiya Ota claiming bronze.
“I like the rainbow jersey so I like to keep it,” Lavreysen told the BBC.
“My team-mate Jeffrey rode a lot of really good riders out the tournament, I think that was to my advantage, so I felt pretty confident going into the finals today.”
Hosts Denmark had two winners on the final day, with Julie Leth claiming gold in the women’s points race, before Tobias Aagaard Hansen finished at the head of the field in the men’s elimination race, which was punctuated by a series of heavy crashes.
Germany claimed victory in the final event of the meeting, winning gold in the men’s madison.
