Women’s Team pursuit favourites Great Britain have stormed their way to a fantastic gold medal win, recording their sixth consecutive world record. After an impressive qualifying session the girls were firm favourites to take home the gold at today’s event and they didn’t disappoint. They took to the Velodrome track with an enormous cheer from the crowd and delivered an amazing performance to take first place.
The British trio of Joanna Rowsell, Dani King, Laura Trott were urged around the track by their coach, ex- Olympian Paul Manning. Paul has been helped in his development as a coach by UK Sport's Elite Coaching Apprenticeship Programme (ECAP) which ensures that he is among the best trained and most knowledgeable in the world. The two year programme follows a traditional apprenticeship model, with the coaches working alongside a master coach with support from a mentor. The programme combines ‘on the job’ training with a series of dedicated workshops.
As well as supporting coaches, UK Sport, thanks to the National Lottery, has been able to invest £26,032,000 into British Cycling over the last four years which has enabled over 85 athletes, including Joanna, Dani and Laura, to be funded as part of British Cycling's World Class Performance Programme. UK Sport has also worked closely with British Cycling to design and develop equipment in line with the UCI's technical regulations. They have developed track based measurement tools and systems to accurately monitor athletic performances in partnership with BAE Systems, McLaren Applied Technologies and Sheffield Hallam University.
Other projects include targeted investigations into understanding training responsiveness to speed and power stimuli, and support in the development and implementation of an injury surveillance programme. All of these different elements were put together in order to ensure that the British women had the best possible chance to win that gold medal which they achieved fantastically today.
For more information about UK Sport's support for Cycling please click here.