Laura Kenny targets third gold medal at European track championships

British track star Laura Kenny – better known by her maiden name Trott, before marrying fellow GB track cyclist Jason Kenny in 2016 – has made a return to her consistent winning ways by taking two gold medals at the European track championships in Glasgow, and is looking to make it a hat-trick of victories in the Madison alongside Katie Archibald on Tuesday.

The Kennys welcomed their son Albert into the world in August 2017, and four-time Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny got back into training later that year before making a return to competition earlier this year at the national championships, in mid-February. She won the British omnium title there, and then headed to the track world championships later that month in Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands.

"Every time the team line up for a race, we want to win, and the Worlds will be no different, but I'm not putting too much pressure on myself in Apeldoorn," she said ahead of taking part in the team pursuit. "I'm interested to see how the team pursuit [riders] get on with racing against the world's best again. It is all made even sweeter by being on the track where I won my first elite world title too."

Seven years after that first world title in the team pursuit, Kenny and her GB squad finished second to the USA in the same event, but it was nevertheless a triumphant return to the highest level of competition for Kenny.

Now, six months on, she won gold in the team pursuit at the European track championships in Glasgow on Friday, and followed it up with a gold medal in the elimination race on Sunday, despite having had to battle against both sleepless nights, thanks to her young son, and what she terms 'mum guilt', referring to having to leave him to train and race.

But Kenny now has her sights set on a third gold medal at the championships, in the Madison on Tuesday alongside Katie Archibald.

Archibald, who also rides on the road for Wiggle High5, was part of the successful team pursuit squad with Kenny on Friday, and then finished second in the individual pursuit on Saturday, losing to Germany's Lisa Brannauer.

On Monday, Archibald goes for her second gold in the omnium, before she and Kenny have the opportunity to finish things off with a medal together as partners in the Madison on the final day of track competition.

The women's European championship road race was won by Italy's Marta Bastianelli on Sunday, and the road events continue with both the women's and men's time trials on Wednesday, ahead of the men's road race on Sunday, August 12. 

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