Barker Aiming For More World Championships Medal Success

Elinor Barker is setting her sights on more World Championship medals after striking silver on the opening night in Hong Kong.

The Cardiff-born rider was just pipped for gold in the scratch race as she claimed Britain’s first medal of the championships.

But Barker still has the points race and madison to come and could come into the team pursuit team today which has a shot at the bronze medal.

The 22-year-old said: “I think this sets me up for the rest of the week.

“It’s definitely made me want to win even more, coming so close and not quite getting it.

“I’ve got another three races and another two chances of winning gold, so we’ll see.

“This was not necessarily my best chance. Until last week I wasn’t even going to be riding the scratch.

“A scratch race can go any way. I was very lucky to get in that break as easily as I did.

“The points race is what I’ve been training for and that’s what most of my hopes are on.”

Barker, who cut her teeth at the Maindy track near her parent’s home in Heath, already has an Olympic team pursuit gold medal from Rio as well as two titles in the event from previous worlds.

And it was so close to that first rainbow jersey as individual world champion as she launched her attack with less than two laps of the 40-lap race left.

But on the line she was pipped by Italy’s Rachele Barbieri with Belgium’s Jolien D’Hoore third.

She added: “I’m a bit disappointed. I know I’m going to watch it back and pick it apart and think ‘argh, that’s where I lost the race’.

“I am happy with a silver medal and quite proud of it, but I’m not going to get to wear the world stripes next time I race the scratch race, which is what I wanted.”

“I kind of wish I’d lost by a little bit of a bigger margin.

“She wasn’t working in the break and it looked very much like she was knackered. She’s got a very good acting pain face.”

“I wanted to go with about a lap and a half at the most and ended up going with just under two, so it wasn’t too far out from my plan.

“A little bit too far maybe, but I felt like I didn’t really have a choice. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I watch it back.

“I think I saw the riders coming over me and I thought I’m pushing it here, I might as well push it on the black line, get a shorter route and not get squeezed down.

“It almost worked. Not quite.”