20 year old Laura Trott lit up the velodrome tonight as she won gold in the omnium, her second gold medal of the London 2012 Olympics.
Going into this evening’s session she was one point behind her main opponent Sarah Hammer of the USA, with two events to go.
After five events, Hammer led on 15 points, while Trott had 17. Australian Annete Edmundson was in third position, following her win in the scratch race, but with five points between her and Trott, all eyes were on the top two.
The final event, the 500m time trial, is one of Trott’s strongest but even so it was going to take something special for Trott to make up the two point deficit as she would need to beat Hammer by three clear places. And that’s exactly what she did setting a new Olympic record in the process.
Speaking afterwards she said, “I cannot believe this is happening to me. I was losing my head a little bit between the events because they weren’t going the way I wanted them to. I am so happy.”
“I’m never normally that nervous because I am good at it (her final event the 500m time trial). Not many people can put three points into Sarah Hammer.”
It’s been a truly remarkable Games for a young rider who never even expected to be here, as her focus had, until recently been on Rio 2016,
“I never thought I would make it to 2012, even my dad said 2016 and I thought ‘that is so far away.’”
Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
