Archibald, Larsen net first gold in Milton Track World Cup

The first Track World Cup to take place in Canada in nearly 20 years opened on Friday in Milton, Ontario, just west of Toronto. Great Britain and Denmark won the only medal events of the first day - the Points Races for women and men respectively.

Great Britain's Katie Archibald took the first gold medal of the weekend with a dominating performance in the women's Points Race. Archibald won the first four intermediate sprints to establish a strong lead that she would never relinquish.

At the halfway mark, Archibald, Canadian favourite Jasmin Duehring, Jarmila Machacova (Czech Republic) and Coralie Demay (France) took a lap on the field to gain 20 points, and the race was down to those four. Duehring took a couple of sprints late in the race to lock up the silver medal, while Machacova held off Demay for bronze.

The men's Points Race started out much tighter, with seven riders dropping the rest of the field. Niklas Larsen (Denmark), Mark Stewart (Great Britain) and Kenny de Ketele (Belgium) swapped the lead until Larsen took a solo lap on the field to score 20 points and lock up the win. Stewart held off de Ketele by four points to take the silver.

Qualifying was also held for the women's and men's team events; the Team Pursuit and Team Sprint. Canada and New Zealand dominated the Team Pursuits, with Canada winning the women's and finishing second in the men's, while New Zealand won the men's and finished second in the women.

The German team anchored by Kristina Vogel were far and away the top Team Sprint squad for the women, while world champions New Zealand won the men's competition.

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