Laura Trott wins London 2012 Olympic cycling gold in women’s team pursuit

Welwyn Wheeler Laura Trott

By Alan Davies Saturday, August 4, 2012
6:25 PM

WELWYN cyclist Laura Trott claimed Olympic gold at the London 2012 Games this evening (Saturday) after winning the women’s team pursuit final with Team GB colleagues Dani King and Joanna Rowsell.

Women’s Omnium guide

* The Omnium is new to the Olympic programme and features riders competing across six disciplines over the course of two days.

* The six events are the flying lap 250m time trial, 20km points race, elimination race, 3km individual pursuit, 10km scratch race and 500m time trial.

* In each event, the winner gets one point, the second-placed rider gets two points, the third three points, and so on.

* At the end of all six events the rider with the lowest total score is the winner.

The Team GB trio of King, Rowsell and Hertfordshire 20-year-old Trott beat USA in the gold medal race at the Olympic Park Velodrome.

Having broken their own world record earlier in the session, the terrific GB trio dominated their 3km race against the American team of Sarah Hammer, Dotsie Bausch and Jennie Reed.

The reigning world champions clocked a blistering world record time of 3 minutes 14.051 seconds for 12 laps of the track to take the gold.

It was the sixth successive ride in which the girls have broken the world record – three of them coming in the Olympics over the past two days.

And their awesome performance in the final was such that they had the Americans in their sights in the final kilometre, the USA team recording 3mins 19.727secs.

Laura said afterwards: “It’s mad, I actually can’t believe it. I feel dead emotional right now. It was my dream – it’s been my dream since I was eight and we’ve just gone and done it.”

Five-time gold medallist and Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy was one of the first to congratulate the new golden girls of British cycling on Twitter.

He tweeted: “GB Team pursuit girls: OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS!!! Never in doubt!!”

Hoy later tweeted: “@JoannaRowsell @daniking1 @lauratrott31 you’re all megastars!”

Trott started her cycling career with Welwyn Wheelers at the Gosling Sports Park track.

And there were tears of joy for Laura’s watching family in the Olympic Velodrome.

Emma Trott, herself an international cyclist who rode in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, tweeted: “So happy right :-D My little sister @LauraTrott31 is just amazing! Proud does not put it into words! Tears of joy :-)”

And tweeting a picture of herself with Laura holding her gold medal, Emma added: “@LauraTrott31 always will be my baby sister and I love her! What a day!”

ITV News at Ten presenter Mark Austin, who recently interviewed Laura at the Gosling velodrome in Welwyn Garden City, tweeted: “Yes!! Great performance by cycling girls. @LauraTrott31 you are a star! Congrats to you and your family!!”

Former Hertfordshire county badminton ace Gail Emms, who won an Olympic mixed doubles silver medal in the Athens 2004 Games, also joined the chorus praising the incredible Welwyn Wheelers rider.

She tweeted: “OMG @LauraTrott31 u are a star!!! Olympic champion and a total legend. Go girls!!”

And the Bruce Springsteen-loving Cheshunt cyclist has the chance of a second gold medal next week when she goes in the individual omnium on Monday and Tuesday.

She is the current world champion at the new Olympic event.

Mark Austin tweeted: “Laura Trott is about to become a very big star. Another gold to come perhaps #London2012”