Vernon K . . . Ethan Vernon Take Kilo Medal And First For GB In New PB

By David Williams

Ethan Vernon has spoken of the thrill of winning his first senior medal for Great Britain at the UEC European Track Championships in Bulgaria.

The 20-year-old Vernon – who rode for Wales at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and is set to be at Birmingham in 2022 – took a silver medal in the Kilo.

It came on Sunday, just a few hours after Vernon had finished fifth and just outside the medals in the points race, giving him little time to recover.

But after qualifying for the Kilo as sixth fastest, he produced a barnstorming performance to finish second behind Tomas Babek of the Czech Republic.

Vernon clocked a personal best time of 1:00.999 to clinch the silver medal, with Babek taking the win in a time of 1:00.517.

“You always come into a race to win but to do a PB by five tenths of a second and go under 1:01 – I can’t really ask for much more,” said Vernon.

“Especially after late last night where I was racing a 160 lap points race, which was a mega tough race, so to only have a bit of recovery and then go and do that, I’m really happy to get a PB and the silver medal.”

Ethan Vernon in his way to his silver medal. Pic: SWpix.com.

Wales’ Elinor Barker added to her two golds earlier in the championships by pairing up with Laura Kenny in the women’s Madison for Great Britain to came away with the bronze medal.

Barker and Kenny, along with the Italian team, regularly scooped the sprint points in the first half of the race, which spurred on the Russian team to gain a lap with 49 to go to put them race leaders.

That exerted the pressure on the British pair to either score well in the remaining intermediate sprints or to attack and take a lap, but the Italian team were able to outsprint the duo on the majority of occasions and with no remaining opportunities to take the lap, Barker and Kenny  finished in the bronze medal position with 38 points.

Elinor Barker (left) and Laura Kenny. Pic: SWpix.com

The Italian duo, having dominated the intermediate sprints, finished the race with 52 points to take the gold with Russia finishing with the silver medal just one point behind with 51 points.

The addition of the silver and bronze medals on the final day of competition means that the Great Britain Cycling Team finish the competition at the top of the medal table with six gold, three silver and two bronze medals.