{"id":437918,"date":"2026-02-21T12:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/437918\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T12:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T12:42:12","slug":"im-just-over-the-moon-world-record-holder-josie-knight-wins-nail-biting-individual-pursuit-final-at-british-track-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/437918\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m just over the moon’ \u2013 World record holder Josie Knight wins nail-biting individual pursuit final at British Track Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the El Cl\u00e1sico of individual pursuit finals \u2013 world champion vs world record holder \u2013 it was the latter, Josie Knight, who won the title at the British Track Championships<\/a> on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Just one second separated the newly crowned European champion<\/a> and rainbow-jersey-wearer Anna Morris inside the Manchester Velodrome. Morris led for all but the last 250m of the 4km event, at one point by more than two and a half seconds, before Knight clawed it back on the home straight to win with a 4:24.029.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A gasp filled the track centre when the gun sounded and the scoreboard tipped in Knight\u2019s favour. For the second night in a row, the IP world champion had been beaten at this year\u2019s championships, after Charlie Tanfield bettered Josh Charlton<\/a> on Thursday. Knight was perhaps the last person in the room to realise she\u2019d done it, too.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was coming into the straight and I hadn\u2019t heard her gun yet, so I drove all the way to the line, and I really couldn\u2019t tell [who had won],\u201d she told Cycling Weekly. \u201cIt took me a half a lap to be like, \u2018Oh wait, that\u2019s my name with number one next to it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight\u2019s title-winning ride came two weeks after she set a new world record <\/a>of 4:19.461 at the UEC European Track Championships in Konya, Turkey. She topped the qualifying board at Nationals on Friday morning, nipping Morris by one tenth of a second, to set up an all-star final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could hear the commentators, and for the first six laps \u2013 when the pain hasn\u2019t quite got to you yet \u2013 I was so aware that they were saying Anna was like 1.5 seconds up,\u201d she said. \u201cWith six [laps] to go, I was like, \u2018There\u2019s nothing to lose, just empty it all to the line.\u2019 I felt sort of in control of the hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just over the moon,\u201d the 28-year-old continued. \u201cYou can\u2019t really ask for much more than beating the world champion\u2026 It\u2019s such a privilege to have such a good race and to race Anna. I hope the crowd realised that that\u2019s as good an IP final as you\u2019ll get anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Curiously, Knight competed with the same helmet and wheels that Tanfield rode to victory on Thursday, having gone to his house to borrow them earlier in the morning. She also wore an old European champion’s skinsuit belonging track sprinter Emma Finucane, for lack of time to make her own. \u201cThe only thing that was mine was my legs and my shoes,\u201d she smiled.<\/p>\n

Eighteen-year-old Erin Boothman<\/a> won the bronze medal in the event, catching her opponent with more than a kilometre to go.<\/p>\n

Richardson\u2019s reign continues<\/p>\n

\n

\"Matthew\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Olly Hassell\/SWPix)<\/p>\n

Following the individual pursuit final, Matthew Richardson<\/a> rounded off a peerless display in the sprint competition with a 2-0 victory over 2023 national champion Harry Ledingham-Horn.<\/p>\n

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Richardson, who beat the 20-time world champion Harrie Lavreysen twice at the European Championships<\/a> earlier this month, won every heat he contested across Thursday and Friday, at times sitting up with half a lap still to race. He is now a third of the way to defending the clean sweep he managed last year, with the team sprint and keirin still to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t come here to get second. I don\u2019t go anywhere to get second,\u201d Richardson said afterwards.<\/p>\n

One person in the media zone likened the sprinter\u2019s dominance to Eusebio\u2019s second-half showing against North Korea at the 1966 World Cup, when he scored four goals, and made his opponents look like schoolboys.<\/p>\n

Richardson’s tactic, he said, was to \u201crace well, but race smart \u2013 I\u2019ve got a pretty big race block this year, and we\u2019re right in the middle of it, so it\u2019s all about making smart decisions and trying to get through races.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Women's\n<\/p>\n

Lauren Bell, Lowri Thomas, Emma Finucane and Rhianna-Parris-Smith won the women’s team sprint. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Olly Hassell\/SWPix)<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s team sprint, Olympic champion Emma Finucane<\/a> combined with her team-mates Rhianna Parris-Smith, Lowri Thomas and Lauren Bell to win the gold medal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy with how we executed the ride,\u201d Finucane said after the final, which she Parris-Smith and Thomas won by a second. \u201cFor the first time riding team sprint together, I think it was a solid ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Parris-Smith\u2019s strong start out the gates, Finucane pulled out a gap to Thomas in the second lap, leaving her Welsh compatriot to charge through and into the victory turn. \u201cThere\u2019s only so much you can do when you have the fastest rider in the world in front of you,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cYou\u2019ve just got to catch up at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the para-cycling events, Archie Atkinson added a C4-5 elimination race title to the scratch race one he won on Thursday. \u201cThat\u2019s two for two,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m on a 100% win streak in racing this year, so I\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were also wins for Matthew Bostock in the men’s scratch race, Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl in the women\u2019s tandem sprint, Chris Latham and Morgan Fice-Noyes in the men\u2019s tandem individual pursuit, Fin Graham in the C1-3 elimination race, Elisabeth Simpson in the C1-3 time trial and Kadeena Cox in the C4-5 time trial.<\/p>\n

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