Anna Morris

It was a week that will go down as one of the finest in Welsh cycling history with triumphs at the Track Cycling World Championships.

Anna Morris has admitted she was in shock after becoming Wales’ latest cycling world champion. Morris, from Cardiff, followed in the bike tracks of Emma Finucane as she rode her way to a first world title in the women’s individual pursuit, knocking out cycling legend Chloe Dygert on the way, on the penultimate day of the 2024 UCI Tissot Track World Championships. It means Wales now has two individual world champions and three members of a world champion team after the penultimate day of the Championships in Denmark.

Welsh athletes have returned home, having made a remarkable impression at the Paris 2024 Olympics, achieving their best performance to date. A record 33 Welsh competitors, including 19 Olympic debutants, represented Team GB, bringing home a total of 13 medals—three gold, three silver, and seven bronze.

Elinor Barker voiced her pride at winning her first Olympic medal since becoming a mother as Great Britain won a bronze in the women’s team pursuit. The Welsh cyclist – who won gold in Rio in 2016 and silver in Tokyo three years ago – finished on the podium while her two-year-old son Nico watched on inside the velodrome in Paris.

Elinor Barker has been backed to bring the benefit of huge experience to the Great Britain cycling squad when she competes at her third Olympic Games. Welsh star Barker, who won Olympic gold in 2016 and silver in 2020 in the team pursuit on the track, has been named in a strong group for Paris that includes Wales’ track sprint world champion Emma Finucane.

Emma Finucane will return from the Netherlands with three medals gained at the European Track Cycling Championships to add to her world title. The new Welsh cycling sensation capped off an impressive European Championships by picking up her third medal with silver in the women’s keirin.

Megan Barker and Jess Roberts both had to settle for silver medals at the European Track Cycling Championships in the Netherlands. While Great Britain claimed gold in the men’s team pursuit, the GB women – including the Welsh duo – had to settle for silver.

Welsh Olympic hopeful Emma Finucane will be aiming to put down an early marker ahead of the Paris Games at the European Track Championships in the Netherlands next week. The 21-year-old world champion from Carmarthen sprung a surprise by winning gold at last year’s world championships in Glasgow and leads a strong Great Britain squad which also includes Olympic bronze medallist Jack Carlin.

Elinor Barker admitted to pain before the gain after she and Anna Morris struck gold for Great Britain at the Cycling World Championships. The Welsh pair – along with semi-final teammate and Barker’s sister Megan – were part of the GB women’s team pursuit who took a magnificent gold medal in a blistering time of 4:08.771, beating New Zealand by over four seconds for the world championship title. There was little to separate the two teams in the early stages, but the Great Britain team steadily built up a gap, and with a raucous home crowd behind them, they soon had the Kiwis in their sights.

Elinor Barker is hoping to get two for the price of one when Scotland hosts the first ever combined cycling world championships in August. An Olympic and five-time world champion on the track, Barker has been focusing more on the road this season and said the opportunity to compete in both disciplines on home turf this summer would be unique

Teenager Josh Tarling blew away the rest of the field to become the British men’s time trial champion as Lizzie Holden claimed the women’s crown at the Croft Circuit near Darlington. Tarling is just 19 but the 6ft 4in tall Welshman towered over his rivals in more ways than one, putting more than a minute into them over the course of 41.1 kilometres as he won in a time of 48 minutes 50 seconds in windy conditions in north Yorkshire.

Anna Morris’s route to elite level cycling couldn’t exactly be called traditional. A junior doctor during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cardiff-born athlete had an unusual journey to becoming a world class cyclist after being surrounded by sport as a youngster. Growing up in Cardiff, a young Morris enjoyed netball, hockey, cross country, gymnastics, triathlon and tennis, but strangely enough, didn’t get on the cycling track until she was at university.