Archibald wins silver as GB take team pursuit bronze

2025 World Track Cycling Championships

Date: 22-26 October Venue: Santiago, Chile

Coverage: Watch coverage across BBC TV, the Red Button, BBC iPlayer & BBC Sport website & app.

Katie Archibald won a silver medal in the women's elimination race while Great Britain claimed bronze in the women's team pursuit at the Track World Championships.

Two-time Olympic champion Archibald was competing in the elimination for the first time in a World Championships and the race took three attempts to get started because of crashes.

With the riders having been whittled down to four in Santiago, Chile, Archibald made a last-ditch sprint to knock out Victoire Berteau of France and secure her 16th world medal overall.

Belgium's Helene Hesters then bowed out, leaving a match sprint with Ireland's Lara Gillespie, who opened a gap as she pushed for the line and Archibald could not catch the European champion from taking her first world title.

"I'm really happy to get to that point to contend when it's a different race in the final two [laps, the match sprint]," said Archibald. "I just didn't have the legs."

Gillespie said: "It's really special and I'm so proud of my country and our small team here. It took focus and composure and I kept believing."

Archibald helped GB win team pursuit gold at the past two World Championships. The 31-year-old Scot was not in the squad for the first time since 2017 but aims to be in the team at the 2028 Olympics.

Anna Morris, Josie Knight, Jess Roberts and Meg Barker qualified second fastest but were beaten by Germany in the first round, before Maddie Leech replaced Roberts as GB comfortably beat Belgium for bronze.

In the sprint events, Emma Finucane made it through to the women's quarter-finals by beating GB team-mate Lauren Bell.

But in the deciding race at that stage with Russian Iana Burlakova, Finucane was relegated for dropping into the sprinter's lane, knocking the two-time defending champion out of the competition.

Matt Richardson and Harry Ledingham-Horn were knocked out in the men's keirin quarter-finals, before Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen extended his record for world titles to 18.