Kenny and Barker round off European Championships with Madison bronze
BySportsbeat
Updated 15/11/2020 at 17:56 GMT
Laura Kenny won her 18th European medal and Elinor Barker won her 11th as the British duo concluded a successful event for Great Britain with a third-place finish in the Madison discipline. Their male counterparts, however, were somewhat less successful.
Laura Kenny
Image credit: Getty Images
Laura Kenny and Elinor Barker won Madison bronze as Britain rounded off a triumphant return to the velodrome at the European Championships in Plovdiv.
The Olympic champion pairing picked up points on each of the intermediate sprints in the 30km race, a popular discipline that will feature at Tokyo 2020.
But the Brits were unable to collect a 20-point haul for lapping the field, with Russians Diana Klimova and Maria Novolodskaya the only duo to do so.
Italy's Elisa Balsamo and Vittoria Guazzini made a decisive late move to win the double-point final sprint, ending with 52 points to Russia's 51.
Britain finished comfortably ahead of Poland on the podium with 38 points.
Barker was to the fore when GB last clinched European gold in Madison - with Ellie Dickinson in 2017 - while Katie Archibald and Emily Nelson won the world title in 2018.
A strong British women's endurance squad delivered four golds in Bulgaria, with themselves and Italy sharing the seven endurance titles on offer.
There was no happy ending for the men's Madison pairing as a crash saw Ollie Wood and Matt Walls, a double gold medallist at the Championships, withdraw from the event.
But Britain can reflect on a terrific week as they finished top of the medal table with six golds and 11 gongs overall on track cycling's smooth return.
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