Former Irish international Josie Knight has taken a medal at the Olympic Games riding for Team GB. The 24-year-old was part of the British women’s team pursuit line-up that won the silver medal earlier today.
Knight and her team mates also broke the world record
during the competition, though their status as record-holders was short-lived
as Germany came out again and broke the record once more.
In the build up to the Games, the women’s team pursuit
competition was seen by many as a two-horse race between Great Britain and the
USA.
And even when the Germans were by far the fastest in
qualifying, in a new world record time, the British camp believed they could go
much faster as the competition progressed.
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While that was true, and the British did go faster, the Germans also moved it up a gear and they took gold with a commanding performance through the competition.
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However, while Britain will be disappointed not to win
the gold, it’s a big step in the career of Knight, who now has an Olympic
silver medal in her palmares and has plenty of time ahead of her.
Furthermore, her status as one of the leading riders in
the squad was confirmed when line-up changes were made for the competition but
Knight retained her place and rode in all rounds.
While Germany - Franziska Brausse, Mieke Kroeger, Lisa Brennauer and Lisa Klein – broke the world record in their first two outings on the track they still had an extra gear in the gold-silver ride-off against Great Britain.
The Germans clocked a time of 4:04.249 and they almost
caught the British team – Knight, Laura Kenny, Katie Archibald and Nia Evans in
that final. The British were well below par, with a time of 4:10.607; well
below the world record they set earlier in the competition, 4:06.748. USA went
on to meet, and beat, Canada in the ride-off that decided the bronze medal.
As a first-year junior rider, Knight won silver in the individual pursuit at the European Track Championships for Ireland and competed for Ireland as a junior at the World Road Championships in 2014.
She also represented Ireland at the elite European Road
Championships in 2016. Knight won the elite Irish omnium title on the track in
2016 and also rode the World Track Championships that season as part of the
team pursuit line-up.
She eventually went on to declare for Great Britain,
through family connections though she was brought up in Kerry, having first
approached the British set-up in 2017 to join it.
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