04 March 2020

Cycling's Katie Archibald upbeat ahead of Olympics despite disappointing showing at World Track Championships

Olympic cycling champion Katie Archibald insists there is no need to make comparisons to previous successes ahead of the Tokyo Games this year.

She was speaking after six-time Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy said he believed Great Britain would not dominate in cycling this summer following their performance at the World Track Championships.

Britain won 12 medals in cycling in Rio four years ago as they swept the board in both sprint and endurance events for the third Olympics in a row.

But a disappointing showing in Berlin last week saw the team pick up just four medals.

However, while Britain's one gold medal at this year's world championships is worrying compared with the five they claimed before Rio in 2016, Archibald is imploring people not to measure them by previous glory.

"I would not jump into making comparisons," she told BBC Sport.

"In the sprint events the margin for error is so small. A hundredth, not even a tenth [makes a difference]. Jack Carlin rode a personal best [in the men's sprint] and qualified in 19th. There was just over a tenth of a second between that and fourth place.

"In endurance events we don't expect it to be quite as drastic - that's where we can take confidence in where we are.

"Every single medal is hard fought. If we came away (from the Olympics) with two gold medals those would be triumphs."

Hoy said: "It's not a time to panic but, at the same time, there has to be significant change to get where they want to be in Tokyo.

"At the moment, the odds are that Britain are not going to dominate in the way they have."

Elinor Barker was the only gold medal winner for Britain at the world championships as she claimed the points race title.

And the 25 year-old is now looking ahead to the Six Day Manchester later this month as an opportunity to improve heading into such a huge summer.

"Manchester is a chance to practise and get some raw madison experience," she said.

"It has only been around for four years so every single chance we get to practice against a high standard we feel is really valuable."

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