Track World Championships: Katie Archibald and Maddie Leech win Madison gold for Great Britain and Hetty van de Wouw smashes 1k TT world record on day 4

A fourth day of racing offered four gold medals at the 2025 UCI Track World Championships in the Peñalolén velodrome in Santiago, Chile.

The women competed for titles in the Madison as well as qualifying and finals for Individual Pursuit and 1km Time Trial. Men's action included four rounds of events in the Omnium.

Women's Madison

The Great British pairing of Katie Archibald and Maddie Leech sealed a stunning victory in the Women's Madison after a crash-marred race which saw the Netherlands, USA and more fail to complete the distance suffering spills that wiped them out of the race.

There were a couple of early crashes as Japan, Australia and Great Britain won first three sprints, but after that the Netherlands came back, winning two of the next three, with France also rallying.

Archibald held her line to survive a crash that wiped out the US team and not long after, both Lisa van Belle and Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands crashed as they attempted a changeover, allowing France to take control of the race. They won the next sprint and took off with Italy, pursued by Archibald for GB as the Netherlands, who had been leading to that point, withdrew from the race.

GB remained in a strong position, using the changeovers to excellent effect, the fresh legs of Maddie Leech always on hand to feature in every intermediate sprint.

Germany launched a late attack but were no threat to the medals, and Great Britain were able to chase them, finishing second in the next sprint to extend their lead. The final sprint before the finish saw a perfect changeover launch Leech to sneak ahead of France and though Belgium attempted to take a flyer in search of the big points at the finish line, they couldn’t get the full lap, and Great Britain came across the line second once again to win by a margin of 6 points over France, with Italy in third.

Women's Kilometre Time Trial

Hetty van de Wouw (Netherlands) broke her own world record in qualifying of the Women's Kilo, going under the 57 kph speed barrier in the process. She was almost a full second faster than Lea Sophie Friedrich (Germany) and Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand).

In the finals, the Dutch rider went on to claim her second gold medal of the Championships, winning by a solid 1.6 seconds over independent athlete Iana Burlakova, Andrews secured the bronze medal less than half a second better than Friedrich.

Men's Omnium

The Men's Omnium competition opened with the Scratch Race on Saturday, Kazushige Kuboki of Japan taking the top spot ahead of Lindsay de Vylder (Belgium) and Juan David Sierra (Italy) in third.

In the Tempo Race, Moritz Augenstein (Germany) scored top points to win the second round of the Omnium. Kuboki finished second to hold his lead in the Omnium, eight points ahead of Albert Torres Barcelo (Spain), who was third in the Tempo contest. De Vylder faded with 11th place, and slipped two spots to fourth overall with two events to go.

In the elimination race, Japan's Kazushige Kuboki, who was leading the standings at that point, was the first of the top riders to be eliminated in ninth position, and with Great Britain's Matt Bostock and the Netherlands' Philip Heijnen both electing to drop out and conserve his energy, the final four places were decided with Leitao fourth, Torres third, and Augenstein second behind a flying Lindsay de Vylder who launched early to seal the full 40 points.

The final outcome hung in the balance heading into the points race, with Torres of Spain leading after three events. After a cagey opening to the race which saw Torres maintaining his position, a five-man group that included Great Britain's Matt Bostock and Germany's Moritz Augenstein struck out and gained a lap, to stir up the standings once again, with the German taking the lead.

The bunch broke up after that with attack after attack flying off, and Denmark's Niklas Larsen added another lap to his tally, but Augenstein continued to lead, while Torres was forced to mark, but he was able to gain a lap later in the race to retake the lead.

Despite a late launch from France's Oscar Nilsson Julien who gained a lap to move himself up the leaderboard, another lap gain for Larssen, and a late bid for glory by Belgium's Lindsay de Vylder, Torres hung on to take the gold, and was visibly emotional after his success in the most high-octane of finales. Kuboki of Japan rode a smart race to take silver and De Vylder took bronze, as Larssen was denied his chance of a medal on the line in the final sprint by Australia's Oliver Bleddyn.

Women's Individual Pursuit

It was already a guaranteed gold and silver for Great Britain in the Women's Individual Pursuit as defending champion Anna Morris, who qualified fastest, took on her teammate Josie Knight in the gold medal final.

Morris started strongly, 1.3 seconds ahead of Knight after the opening kilometre, and she continued to add steadily to her leading margin throughout the race, eventually finishing 2.3 seconds ahead of Knight to take a second consecutive rainbow jersey.

The USA's Chloé Dygert was imperious in her bronze medal race against Italy's Federica Venturelli, catching her only just over halfway through the race's 4-kilometre distance to finish third in the competition.