Katarina Johnson-Thompson refused to get carried away despite remaining in gold medal contention at the World Championships.

The 2019 world heptathlon champion sits second, 93 points adrift of leader Anna Hall, after the first day in Budapest.

She still faces a battle to return to the global podium with the United States’ Chari Hawkins just five points behind and team-mate Taliyah Brooks a further 13 points adrift.

But, after an Achilles rupture in 2020, Johnson-Thompson remains cautiously optimistic.

She said: “I’m just seeing what I can do. Who would have predicted today?

“Sport is so unpredictable and especially heptathlon. That’s why I don’t like trying to think about what’s going to happen in the future. I’m just trying to take each event as it comes.

“It’s really close behind me as well. All I need to do is just keep knocking on the door, stay in the flow and who knows what can happen?

“I just want a medal. I’m definitely in amongst it.”

A storm postponed the action by an hour in the morning and forced Johnson-Thompson to wait.

The 30-year-old ran 13.50 seconds in her 100 metres hurdles heat, before clearing 1.86m in the high jump.

It left her fourth overall with 2104 points – 41 adrift of leader Hall – before the evening session.

A best of 13.64m in the shot put dropped her to joint fifth before victory in her 200m heat in 23.48s boosted her medal hopes heading into the second day.

She added: “Today has been one of the most gruelling days of heptathlon I’ve ever experienced. We are all feeling it and we’re all talking to each other and asking, why are we so tired?

“I think it was the delay, waking up at six, warming up and then being told ‘no, stop.'”

Zharnel Hughes, the fastest man in the world this year, clocked 10 seconds in his 100m heat ahead of Sunday’s semi-finals and final.

Hughes, the British 100m and 200m record holder, won his race while Reece Prescod, who pulled out of the relay squad earlier this week, qualified in third in his heat.

Eugene Amo-Dadzie, an accountant who is due back to work once the Championships finish, was second in his heat on his Great Britain debut.

The 31-year-old has taken annual leave to compete in Budapest and returns to work as a senior management accountant for property developer Berkeley Group on August 29.

“I’m on the world stage. I say to people who don’t really know track and field ‘I’m at the World Cup of athletics’ and they’re like ‘OK’,” he said, after running 10.10s.

“For me, that’s incredible because this is beyond a dream. I didn’t grow up dreaming to do this but, by the grace of God, I found myself doing this.

“I’ve had a lot of support from all the different accountant bodies. They’re like ‘yo, you’re putting accountants on the map’. We’re not just these boring stiff squares sat at the office typing away.”

Great Britain captain Laura Muir, who has endured a disrupted year after splitting from long-term coach Andy Young in March, was second in her 1500m heat in the morning session.

She clocked four minutes 03.50 seconds behind the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan.

Kenya’s defending champion Faith Kipyegon remains the overwhelming favourite and won her heat in 4:02.62.

Great Britain’s Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant also progressed to Sunday’s semi final.

Muir said: “Job done, I wanted to qualify with as little drama as possible.

“I was a little disappointed we weren’t in the rain. I would have been happy to crack on but I know there’s a lot of electrical equipment and technical equipment and the rain doesn’t suit everybody.

“It’s a fast track, I think it’ll be an exciting champs. As soon as I did a couple of strides it felt nice. There’s always a bit of scrapping and spiking but I felt comfortable.

“I saw Sifan go past and I was expecting that but I was scared she would go and everyone would come. I kept looking up and saw there was a gap.”

In the men’s 1500m Josh Kerr, who won Olympic bronze in Tokyo, Neil Gourley and Elliot Giles all reached Sunday’s semis, with last year’s world champion Jake Wightman out with injury.

Jazmin Sawyers, the European indoor champion, finished 22nd in qualifying to miss out on the long jump final with a best of just 6.41m.

Dina Asher-Smith believes she is racing in the “golden age” of women’s sprinting.

The 27-year-old is ready to start her World Championships campaign in Budapest.

Asher-Smith, who finished fourth in the 100m at the Worlds last year despite equalling her British record of 10.83 seconds, and Daryll Neita race in the 100m heats on Sunday.

They are aiming to challenge Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson, who completed a clean sweep of the medals in Eugene 13 months ago. Asher-Smith took 200m bronze behind Jackson and Fraser-Pryce.

“I definitely do think we’re in like a golden age,” said Asher-Smith. “It will be remembered as kind of like a (Usain) Bolt era but on the side of the women’s, and far more competitive. There are a lot of women in that arena.

“You say Shelley-Ann and Elaine would be like, ‘ah?’ Then even this year, Shericka will be like, ‘er?’ There are just so many.

“I feel like when there’s so many people running fast, there’s no point thinking about other people. You’ve just got to focus on yourself.

“If you start focusing on one or two, you’ll forget about the other seven, who are also incredibly quick. There’s lots of very, very talented and very experienced women racing.

“I think we have one of the strongest and what will hopefully be the most exciting events of this World Championships.

“There’s a lot of depth. All you can do is focus on yourself, right? That’s all I can do. I can only control myself. So that’s kind of what I am doing.”

Neita, who along with Asher-Smith is also running in the 200m and 4x100m relay, goes into the Championships ranked seventh in the world in both individual events.

She said: “I’m feeling very confident. It’s going to be the first time I’m doing two events and then onto the relay as well. So it’s very different this year, because I’m normally going for the 100 metres, which is we know is stacked.

“Failing to make the final at worlds last year was very bittersweet, running the fastest ever semi-final not to make it.

“The 200m is still a pretty new event for me but I’m feeling very confident and I’m just going there this year, very relaxed, not putting too much pressure on myself, but just really want to have fun and execute and just achieve as well as I can.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson recovered from a nervous heptathlon opening on the first morning of the World Championships.

The 2019 world champion sits fourth after a delayed start at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest.

A storm postponed the action by an hour and forced Johnson-Thompson to wait but she struggled in the first event.

The 30-year-old ran 13.50 seconds in her 100m hurdles heat, well behind the American trio of Taliyah Brooks, Anna Hall and Chari Hawkins.

Before her Achilles rupture in 2020, Johnson-Thompson had run a personal best of 13.09 seconds – en route to winning the world title in 2019 – and clocked a season’s best of 13.34 seconds at the British Championships last month.

She entered the high jump at 1.77m, clearing at the first attempt, before eventually leaping 1.80m on her third jump to settle the nerves.

A clearance of 1.86m left her second in the high jump and fourth overall with 2104 points – 41 adrift of leader Hall – with the shot put and 200m to come in the evening session in Hungary.

Great Britain captain Laura Muir, who has endured a disrupted year after splitting from long-term coach Andy Young in March, was second in her 1500m heat.

She clocked four minutes 03.50 seconds behind the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan.

Kenya’s defending champion Faith Kipyegon remains the overwhelming favourite and won her heat in four minutes 02.62 seconds.

Great Britain’s Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant also progressed to Sunday’s semi final.

Muir said: “Job done, I wanted to qualify with as little drama as possible.

“I was a little disappointed we weren’t in the rain. I would have been happy to crack on but I know there’s a lot of electrical equipment and technical equipment and the rain doesn’t suit everybody.

“It’s a fast track, I think it’ll be an exciting champs. As soon as I did a couple of strides it felt nice. There’s always a bit of scrapping and spiking but I felt comfortable.

“I saw Sifan go past and I was expecting that but I was scared she would go and everyone would come. I kept looking up and saw there was a gap.”

Jazmin Sawyers, the European indoor champion, finished 22nd in qualifying to miss out on the long jump final with a best of just 6.41m.

The 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Joe Brier, Laviai Nielsen, Rio Mitcham and Yemi Mary John reached Saturday night’s final in three minutes 11.19 seconds.

Nielsen said: “It was fast and loud, so I think that gave us an extra lift. We have all been itching to go so we are pleased with how we have performed as a team.”

Zharnel Hughes, the fastest man in the world this year, runs in the 100m heats in the evening with Reece Prescod and Eugene Amo-Dadzie.

Keely Hodgkinson believes athletics stars never get the credit they deserve.

The 21-year-old is in Budapest ahead of her assault on the 800 metres title at the World Championships.

Emma Raducanu’s US Open win in 2021 catapulted her to stardom while Hodgkinson is still a relative unknown outside of athletics in the UK.

That is despite her Olympic and world silver medals along with three European golds.

She said: “I do think us athletes work a lot harder than some other sports and we don’t get the recognition we deserve. I don’t know how but hopefully we will get there.

“I think because an athlete is individual, obviously you have your team around you which is great but you have a lot of individualisation time. I think it’s just hard.

“If it’s a team and you lose, the whole team is supporting you. If it’s you, everything is on you and you’re the one that controls what happens when you set off.

“That’s just a different kind of pressure. Training for these events, it’s tough. Footballers think they’re fit, they’re just not. Because if you brought them down to the track they wouldn’t keep up.

“Everyone works hard. Tennis players work really hard, everything is just different. But in all the different aspects you have in athletics, I don’t think people realise the behind the scenes of what goes into it.”

Hodgkinson has also limited the brands she works with – just Nike, Omega and Maurten – to ensure she remains focused on training, but was still called ‘athletics’ new It girl’ in an interview with Vogue this month.

“When you work with brands they also want something back,” she adds. “Days here, days in London, media days. If you’ve got six, seven, eight different brands your time is going to be taken up quite a bit – and my main priority is training.

“I just want to make sure they understand and they don’t want too much from me that it takes away or stresses me out, or anything like that. I’m protecting who I work with just to see what comes along.”

Her quest for 800m gold starts in the heats on Wednesday but world champion, the USA’s Athing Mu, has been keeping Hodgkinson guessing over whether she will compete in Hungary or focus on next year’s Paris Olympics.

Hodgkinson finished second behind Mu in Eugene last year and at the Tokyo Olympics, with their battle still poised to be one of the races of the Championships.

“When you’re missing a big name, when people come they want to watch that,” she said. “It would definitely be a shame if she’s missing. But we don’t know what’s going on on her side of the world and what her story is.

“We’ve not heard anything so I guess we just have to wait and see, but I try not to think about who’s going to turn up and who’s not.

“You kind of go in with the mentality that everyone’s going to be there and if they’re not, they’re not.

“That (gold) is a personal goal of mine anyway. So it would just be quite fulfilling if I did that.”

Meanwhile, skipper Laura Muir starts her 1500m campaign at the National Athletics Centre on Saturday, along with GB team-mates Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant, aiming to challenge Kenya’s world and Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon.

“Obviously, you always want to come away with a medal but it’s about the stuff you can control,” said Muir. “That’s what I talked about in the captaincy speech.

“The two key messages were: no limitations on yourself, because you don’t know what you’re capable of, you can go out there and run way faster than you thought, and then no expectations of others.

“You have no idea what other people are capable of either and what shape they’re in.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is ready to return to her best and believes the world heptathlon title is up for grabs.

The 2019 champion is eyeing the podium at the World Championships after last year’s winner Nafi Thiam pulled out.

Belgium’s Thiam, the double Olympic champion, is sidelined with an Achilles issue as she targets the treble at next year’s Games in Paris.

The USA’s Anna Hall, third in Eugene last year, is favourite for the crown in Hungary but Johnson-Thompson feels the competition is wide open.

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“Before Thiam dropped out, I felt like it was very much like a head-to-head between Thiam and Anna Hall and now I don’t know what it’s going to take to win a medal,” she said, ahead of the start of the heptathlon in Budapest on Saturday.

“I don’t know what it’s going to take to win. So that’s why I feel like it’s open. I could name five people who could finish between first, second and third.

“Sometimes the heptathlon can be a two-person race and then everyone else is fighting for the bronze, I feel like this year is quite open and I don’t know where it’s going to go.

“You never know. I’ve always been worried that 2019 was my peak, because then Covid happened and I had my Achilles rupture and the momentum I was building towards my peak got short changed and cut off.

“I feel like anybody who’s won a major championship has the ability to say ‘I’ve done it before therefore, it can be done again’. I feel like that, even though I can’t remember it.

“Whenever I look back at videos, or see images of Doha, it just takes me back to that place in time and the frame of mind I was in.

“So it’s always a positive thing to look back. What has been done before can be done again. That’s the type of frame of mind I get myself into when I see those images.

“I just like to prove myself right. I feel like if I let other people’s opinions in, I wouldn’t be sitting here saying that I’m in good shape and excited about the outcome, because I would have instead believed that I might as well give up or my body isn’t right for it.

“My goal is a medal and I think I can score what it takes to get on the rostrum but you never know whether the event is going to go off or if it’s going to be quite subdued.

“I’m trying to predict the future but I can’t. I feel like that’s why I’m just chilled because you’re just never going to know.”

Johnson-Thompson beat Thiam to win world gold in Doha four years ago before her Achilles rupture in late 2020.

She recovered to make the Tokyo Olympics only to suffer a calf injury in the 200m and withdraw. She finished eighth at last year’s World Championships – having split with coach Petros Kyprianou weeks before after only five months in Florida.

A successful defence of her Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham put her back on the podium and she is now content in Hungary.

“This one feels different in the way that I feel like I’m the calmest I’ve ever been going into it,” said the 30-year-old, now based in the UK under Aston Moore.

“In Doha it was exciting and I had a big battle but with this one I feel completely calm and full of experience.

“I’ve done it so many times now and it never gets any easier but you can approach it in a different manner. I feel like this one, I’m just going to put all my experience into it and see where it gets me.

“It’s always a stepping stone to next year, because ultimately the main goal of my career is to get an Olympic medal.

“This is maybe my last heptathlon before Paris – I don’t know if I’m going to do another one. So it’s like a full on dress rehearsal.”

Holly Bradshaw has revealed she has beaten crippling anxiety to lay her pole-vault ghosts to rest.

The 31-year-old is ready for the World Championships in Budapest after returning from a nightmare injury streak.

Bradshaw suffered a freak accident in Eugene last year when her pole broke in the final jump of her warm-up.

It left her with back, arm and hamstring injuries and she then snapped her hamstring at the Commonwealth Games a few weeks later in a rush to compete in Birmingham.

A comeback this year, shaking off an Achilles issue, has seen her make the plane for Budapest on her world ranking position but it has not been without its own fears.

She said: “I was crippled with anxiety leading into it and I just had to remind myself, this is what I love. Going through the warm-ups out in Lausanne (Diamond League in July) I was nervous. I was pretty much shaking.

“I felt sick. I hadn’t competed in over a year and actually jumped well in over two years in a competition environment.

“There’s also the anxiety of clearing the bar. Having my big fall in Oregon has created some anxiety around pole vaulting, especially in windy conditions. So there’s this something that sits in the bottom of your stomach or in your mind that says, ‘I don’t want to do this. This is scary.’

“The first couple of competitions was really trying to overcome that and overcome that fear but once that hard bar went up and I cleared the opening one I had the biggest smile on my face.

“I didn’t pick up a pole after I snapped my hammy until January. That’s five and a half months I couldn’t run down the runway.

“I would have loved to have just got back up and planted the pole, that would have done my psychology a world of good, but because I couldn’t it was tricky.

“I’m quite robust, I don’t know whether it’s like the northern streak in me. I’m renowned on the circuit for, ‘she’ll pop off the pole, fall and then she’ll just get straight back up and clear the bar’.

“I just don’t let those negative things seep into my brain. I’m just kind of crazy. I just go for it. The biggest challenge for me was trying not to let those terrifying, negative, thoughts come in.”

After finishing second at the British Championships to Molly Caudery last month, Bradshaw now feels it is important to talk about any issues so others can understand what athletes deal with.

“Athletes being more open with what they’re going through, with what they’re struggling with, it just educates people,” she said.

“How are you guys (the media) meant to know what’s going on if we don’t tell you? So we tell you what’s going on and then there’s more knowledge around that situation. In the past athletes get frustrated but actually it’s on them to be open as well.

“I remember when I was a young athlete, I wanted to keep my injuries secret. I didn’t want anyone to think I’m weak.

“Now it’s like, ‘this is what’s going on in my life and this is what I’m navigating’.

“I’m just doing the best that I can and I’m kind of on this journey to try and achieve something. I’m going to tell you all about it and not be embarrassed or shameful of it.”

World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe believes “real deal” Keely Hodgkinson and sprint star Zharnel Hughes are Great Britain’s best bets for World Championship glory.

Hodgkinson missed out on the world 800 metres title by just 0.08 seconds to American Athing Mu last year and also finished second behind the same athlete at the Toyko Olympics in 2021.

The 21-year-old has been in excellent form this season, setting a world best indoors over 600m in January and defending her European indoor title before beginning her outdoor season by lowering her British record in Paris.

Hughes has enjoyed arguably even better preparation for Budapest, the Anguilla-born star breaking the 30-year-old British records of Linford Christie and John Regis over 100 and 200m respectively in the space of a month.

His 100m time of 9.83 seconds, recorded in New York in June, remains the fastest in the world this year.

Asked if Hughes’s performances had earned the respect of the top sprinting nations and could lead to gold in Budapest, Coe said: “Yes and yes.

“I can give you the feedback from the cradle of sprinting and the NACAC congress in Costa Rica last month.

“People whose judgement I really value, both in Jamaican sprinting and US sprinting, think he can win in Budapest simply because it may not be that fast a race anyway. Their judgement is that he is absolutely a contender.

“The more people coming on the scene and fighting their way into the upper echelons of the sport is terrific and for British sprinting it’s not just a good thing, it’s an important thing.

“And those were good records; John Regis’s 200m record was one for the ages when he set it.”

Hodgkinson has tasted just one defeat over 800m so far in 2023, finishing second behind Kenya’s Mary Moraa, the Commonwealth champion, in Lausanne.

“I think she’s the real deal, I’ve thought that for some time,” added Coe, who also feels Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson will challenge for medals in Budapest.

“At the age of 19 winning a silver in a world championships, similar type of performance at an Olympic Games, she’s outstanding. She’s coached well, she’s grounded and she’s talented.

“She is at this moment in great shape and this is where we’re beginning to see some strength in depth with Jemma Reekie running 1:57 in London. We’ve got depth now and genuine quality and this is encouraging.”

Coe reiterated that no Russian or Belarusian athletes would be competing in Budapest following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a stance that World Athletics is set to maintain for next year’s Olympic Games.

“We’ve taken the view they won’t be in Paris,” Coe said. “We made the decision that we felt was in the best interests of the sport.

“Decisions we’ve made in the past have been tough ones, whether it’s around preserving the female category, transfers of allegiance, the initial suspension of Russia back in 2015 – we’ve done it because it’s been the right thing to do.

“If it has given other sports permission or comfort to feel that they can do the same then that’s a good thing but it’s entirely up to them – we didn’t do it for that reason.

“The nature of these decisions is that the world does change. We are also creating working groups to monitor the situation so we aren’t closing the door forever.

“We’re not the ‘computer says no’ federation and we’ve always, if we could, found the navigable route through.”

Andy Murray has been restored to Great Britain’s Davis Cup team as they take on Australia, France and Switzerland in Manchester next month.

Murray, who was integral to Britain ending a 79-year wait for glory in the team competition as they triumphed in 2015, was left out of their 3-1 qualifying win on the Colombian clay in February.

British captain Leon Murray suggested the surface was not conducive for Murray, who had at the time played just three matches on clay since 2017, and the former world number one has returned to the fray.

He takes his place alongside Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans and Neal Skupski for the Finals Group Stage at Manchester’s AO Arena from September 12-17 as they attempt to qualify for November’s knockout stage.

Only two of the four nations will advance from Group B for the quarter-finals in Malaga.

“We can’t wait to play Davis Cup in Manchester in front of a huge home crowd,” Smith said.

“It’s been a long time since we played in the North West and I’m sure we are going to feel and hear a lot of energy from the fans.

“We have a great team with a lot of Davis Cup experience who will be ready to give it everything in a tough group with Australia, Switzerland and France.”

Tom Pidcock became the first British man to be crowned world mountain bike cross-country champion at the elite level with a dominant victory in the Olympic race at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glentress Forest.

The 24-year-old rode away from 10-time world champion Nino Schurter with two and a half of the eight laps remaining and soloed to win ahead of Sam Gaze, having the time for a slightly awkward celebration as he crossed the line with a Yorkshire flag wrapped around his face.

Pidcock adds the world mountain bike title to the Olympic crown he took in Tokyo and the cyclo-cross world title he won in 2022, plus achievements on the road that include a Tour de France stage win last year and victory at Strade Bianche this spring.

“It feels good,” Pidcock said. “It’s a big relief. It’s been a long week building up to this.

“In front of my home crowd, it’s pretty special. Coming down the final straight, I could finally soak it all in.

“Before that, the last few laps were so stressful. My gears were not working on the last lap, they were jumping on every climb – and Gaze was coming behind. I thought it could all go in the bin at any moment.”

Pidcock made this event a major target in his season, reluctantly skipping last weekend’s road race in order to commit all of his energies.

Mathieu Van Der Poel, who won that road race and then pitched up here, crashed out on the opening circuit.

Pidcock sliced through the field at the start, going from 30th to fifth in the first two laps and then continuing to push on the pace to make sure it would be a very selective battle for the medals.

There was controversy before the race as the UCI adopted World Cup rules to elevate road stars Pidcock, Van Der Poel and Peter Sagan to the fourth row of the grid, rather than further back according to their ranking, with the governing body even admitting the move was because of the “added value” they bring.

That led to several rivals co-signing an open letter condemning the decision, feeding into the narrative that began after Thursday’s short-track race when German Luca Schwarzbauer said Pidcock was not part of the community of “pure mountain bikers” after a late crash between the pair.

Pidcock, who took time out of his Tour build-up to collect UCI points in World Cup races in Novo Mesto in May, said the decision to change the grid was “bulls***”.

“It’s outrageous,” he said. “A rule like that needs to be put in place in January. I sacrificed three weeks of my preparation for the Tour to try and get some points and this week they changed the rule. You can’t do that. It’s not fair.”

Evie Richards settled for sixth in the women’s race as French star Pauline Ferrand-Prevot successfully defender her Olympic title days after also defending her short track crown.

Ferrand-Prevot was effectively in a race of her own, with more than a minute’s cushion over team-mate Loana Lecomte, while Richards – third in Thursday’s short track race – tried to battle Alessandra Keller, Puck Pieterse and Mona Mitterwallner for bronze but faded in the last couple of laps.

““I was tired to start, so I just tried to hang on for dear life after getting a good start,” Richards said. “I pushed as hard as I could and couldn’t stay with that medal – but I gave it all that I could. I think I was still tired from the short track, to be honest.

“I just felt I was really happy that I could push, that I was competitive, I wasn’t off the back – and the crowds were amazing. I feel really lucky that I got to race in front of them today.”

Emma Finucane capped a breakout year as she became Britain’s first women’s sprint world champion in a decade at the UCI Cycling World Championships.

The 20-year-old got the better of Germany’s Lea Friedrich to win the final 2-0, the first time Britain had picked up a medal of any colour in this event since Becky James took the world title in 2013.

“It’s pretty surreal to be honest,” the Welsh rider said. “I can’t really believe that I’m world champion.

“I don’t think it will ever sink in but I really wanted this, I worked really hard for this with my coach Kaarle (McCulloch) and the team back in Manchester so it’s definitely super special.

“Especially after coming so close in the team sprint and then crashing in the keirin, but everything happens for a reason and this was meant to happen for me so it’s super special.”

Finucane has been a key part of Britain’s changing fortunes in the women’s sprint and last week was part of the trio that won team sprint silver alongside Sophie Capewell and Lauren Bell, building on their bronze last year.

This year she has also picked up four national titles, a Nations Cup win in Cairo, and two silver medals at the European championships.

“After winning in Cairo I knew it was in there and it’s just executing,” she said. “I knew I could do it, it’s just how you do it.

“This year has been pretty special for me and I’ve broken through but there’s still so much more to come for Paris, and I’m excited to start that journey again.”

There were emotional scenes with McCulloch, who is leaving her post after these championships for personal reasons, in tears during the celebrations.

“Emotions are super high because Kaarle is leaving and I feel like this was my last race with her and to win it with her and for her is super special,” Finucane added.

“I knew I was going well after the team sprint so I really wanted it in the keirin and after crashing I just used that as motivation to give everything and show everyone that I can do it.”

Jack Carlin missed out the medals in the men’s keirin on his home track as he took fifth place in the final, with Will Perrett also fifth in the men’s points race.

Katie Archibald inspired Great Britain to an emotional women’s team pursuit victory at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow on Saturday night.

Archibald joined up with Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris to beat New Zealand to gold in a time of four minutes 8.771 seconds, four and a half seconds up on their rivals, to give Britain a first world title in this event since 2014.

It was a fifth world title for Archibald, but perhaps the most significant. She has come into these championships, in her home velodrome, still grieving the death of her partner Rab Wardell, who suffered a cardiac arrest as he lay in bed at home a year ago.

Archibald had said she was determined to honour Wardell this week, and she surely did so with a powerful ride that belied a difficult build-up and helped make the difference in the final.

New Zealand were ahead on the time splits for much of the opening 1,500 metres, but a big turn from Knight nudged Britain in front before the midway point.

Archibald then put on the power to open up a two-second advantage before pulling off with a kilometre still to go, the result all but beyond doubt.

Archibald and Barker were both part of the team when Britain last won the women’s team pursuit world title nine years ago. They went on to Olympic glory in Rio before taking silver in Tokyo, but the rainbow jerseys in this flagship event eluded them.

“It is all coming out, this is the event,” Archibald said on BBC Sport. “Someone was talking about imposter syndrome the other day and you almost have it the other way round, we almost see ourselves as the best in the world.

“But we have not been on the top step since 2014, so to have that feeling validated, it feels good!”

Knight, who is Archibald’s housemate in Manchester, called her friend “phenomenal”.

“I see her ups and downs every day,” she said. “She’s had a really tough couple of weeks. I know her prep hasn’t been quite what she would have wanted. Usually she’s the real hero of this team. We’ve had to adapt and I’ve tried to step up, take that role on.

“But she is phenomenal. We all stepped up. And we’re world champions.”

Barker, who has shared so many moments with Archibald including Olympic gold in Rio, added: “Katie’s unbelievable. It’s really hard to summarise the year that she has had, how she feels about it, how we feel about it.

“Just the fact that she is here, it’s insane. I don’t really know how she does it to be honest.”

This is Barker’s first global track event since she became a mother after the last Olympics, and an extra special one as she was able to share the moment with sister Meg – who rode in Saturday morning’s first round – and Morris, who was in the same year as her at Llanishen High School in Cardiff.

Meg Barker had ridden the opening qualifier in place of Archibald, who is saving some of her energies for Sunday’s elimination race and the omnium in the coming days, a change to the original plan – with Elinor Barker now joining Neah Evans in Monday’s Madison.

In the men’s team pursuit, Denmark beat Italy to take the world title in a time of three minutes 45.161 seconds, two years to the day since Italy beat Denmark to gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

There were more gold medals for Britain’s para-cyclists. Sam Ruddock successfully defended his men’s C1 kilo title before Blaine Hunt took the C5 crown, with Jaco van Gass then beating team-mate Fin Graham to win the men’s C3 scratch race and his second rainbow jersey in as many days.

Katie Archibald and Great Britain celebrated an emotional women’s team pursuit win in Glasgow at the UCI Cycling World Championships on Saturday night.

Archibald joined up with Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, and Anna Morris to beat New Zealand to gold in a time of four minutes 8.771 seconds, more than four seconds up on their rivals, to give Britain a first world title in this event since 2014.

It was a fifth world title for Archibald, and a hugely poignant one as she races at these championships in her native Scotland to honour her late partner Rab Wardell, who tragically died of a cardiac arrest as he lay in bed last August.

New Zealand were ahead on the time splits for much of the opening 1,500 metres, but a big turn from Knight nudged Britain in front before the midway point.

Archibald then put on the power to open up a two-second advantage before pulling off with a kilometre still to go, the result all but beyond doubt.

Archibald and Barker were both part of the team when Britain last won the women’s team pursuit world title nine years ago, going on to enjoy Olympic glory in Rio before taking silver in Tokyo.

This is Barker’s first global track event since she became a mother after the last Olympics.

Britain had topped the time sheets in all three rounds of this event, having subbed in Elinor’s sister Meg Barker in place of Archibald for Saturday morning’s first round.

Archibald is saving herself for the elimination race and omnium in the coming days, a change to the original plan with Elinor Barker now joining Neah Evans in Monday’s Madison.

In the men’s team pursuit, Denmark beat Italy to take the world title in a time of three minutes 45.161 seconds, two years to the day since Italy beat Denmark to gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

There were more gold medals for Britain’s para-cyclists. Sam Ruddock successfully defended his men’s C1 kilo title before Blaine Hunt took the C5 crown, with Jaco van Gass then beating team-mate Fin Graham to win the men’s C3 scratch race and his second rainbow jersey in as many days.

Although Ruddock went in as defending champion, the 33-year-old called his title a surprise given his recent focus on the individual pursuit, in which he finished fourth on Thursday.

“Madness,” Ruddock said. “I didn’t expect it at all. We’ve done a lot of work around pursuits in the previous year so the target was to get a bronze medal ride off and we achieved that.

“The kilo was the secondary event so to go faster in the kilo and defend the title was a massive surprise.”

Jody Cundy won a remarkable 14th consecutive world kilo title as Britain’s para-cyclists enjoyed a golden night on the second day of the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow.

Neil Fachie, racing on home boards in Scotland, claimed a 17th world title, piloted to glory by Matt Rotherham in the men’s B kilo time trial ahead of fellow Brits James Ball and Steffan Lloyd, before Jaco Van Gass pipped team-mate Fin Graham to gold in the men’s C3 kilo time trial.

Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl then made it two golds in as many days as they beat fellow Brits Lora Fachie and Corrine Hall in the women’s B individual pursuit.

These combined ‘super’ world championships are the first in which the track cycling and para-track cycling has been fully integrated, and the Brits took full advantage of the partisan home crowd as Fran Brown and Daphne Schrager also picked up silver medals.

Cundy has owned the men’s C4 kilo crown since making his debut in 2006. But after a spell of injury and illness the 44-year-old has considered stepping away from the sport in recent months before rediscovering his mojo and using it to claim yet another rainbow jersey.

“It’s probably the best one purely off the fact I’ve had an absolute shocker of a year,” Cundy said. “I’ve been properly low, depression, just things in life but I’ve had massive support from the team, my fiancee, kids, my mum and dad and a great network within British Cycling…

“It was getting to a point where I had absolutely no motivation every time I got on the bike and it was getting harder and harder and I just wasn’t looking forward to it…

“But thankfully I’ve kind of turned my world around and here we are with another world title in the bag. This is probably the best one.”

Cundy said next year’s Paraylmpics is likely to be his swansong but, having just ridden his best time at sea level at 1 minute 3.648 seconds, he added: “You can’t say never, and if I’m getting better then it will be hard to walk away.”

“If I get to Paris and I can get on the podium or whatever, it would be a nice way to go out.”

Crowd favourite Fachie took a 17th career world title, and credited the Glasgow crowds with spurring him on as he and Rotherham needed a big push in the final few laps to beat Ball and Lloyd by 0.042 seconds.

“This is my first big race (back at the velodrome) since 2014 and the Commie Games which was one of the absolute highlights of my career so just to be back here is amazing, and it’s a first world title with my son in the crowd watching so that was special too.

“The crowd was amazing, that’s the reason we won today. We’ve got no idea on the bike if we’re up or down (on time), all we could hear was the crowd roaring.

“I assumed we were going really well because they were cheering, I had no concept of us being behind but the crowd got behind us and we just nicked it.”

Van Gass took his fifth world title as he beat Graham by 0.263seconds, and then soaked in the adulation of the crowd.

“It really is amazing,” the 36-year-old said. “Every time a British rider steps to the plate the crowd goes wild and honestly I needed them today, they drove me through it. It’s a great experience and what the sport deserves.”

Unwin and Holl won the women’s B kilo on Thursday, and doubled up with a convincing win over Fachie, who is married to Neil, and Hall.

“We knew how the race was going to go, we knew we would be behind in the first half and hopefully bring it back and to be able to execute that how we wanted to was amazing,” Unwin said.

“Yesterday it was nice to see the endurance and the speed in our legs and that gave us the confidence to know we could come in today and do what we wanted.”

Great Britain recorded a best major women’s team sprint result in 11 years with silver at the UCI Cycling World Championships before Will Tidball ended the day with scratch race gold in Glasgow.

Lauren Bell, Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane recorded a time fast enough to break the world record at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome but Germany went even faster to take gold in a time of 45.848 seconds.

Bell described it as a “bittersweet” result as they settled for silver, but even so it is another big marker after Britain failed to qualify for the team sprint at either of the last two Olympics.

Silver is Britain’s best result at this level since Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish finished runners up in 2011, having been beaten by an Australian team including outgoing Great Britain coach Kaarle McCulloch.

“We pushed them all the way,” said Capewell. “We can take a bit of credit for that world record I think. It’s a little bit disappointing but our goal is next year and this is a stepping stone.

“If you look at how far we’ve come, we’ve knocked over half a second off our time last year and none of us executed it perfectly so there is more to come.”

It was a rollercoaster day for Britain in the velodrome, with their defence of the men’s team pursuit title ending a qualifying crash for Charlie Tanfield in the morning, but Tidball ended it in golden fashion with a surprise win in the scratch race.

The 23-year-old, making his World Championship debut and competing in his only race of the week, kept himself hidden for much of the 60-lap race before coming around Dutch rider Roy Eefting-Bloem with half a lap to go.

“I didn’t have expectations,” Tidball said. “I didn’t really dream of coming away with a medal. I wanted to put it all on the line to win it. With a scratch race, that’s how you’re going to win. You can’t win it with a half-hearted attack. We went all-in and it paid off.”

If there was a complaint from the riders, it was that the medal ceremonies did not take place in the velodrome itself, but over in a side room away from the crowds.

“That’s the one thing that is missing,” Tidball said. “They should have put that here. It’s probably the most important thing to have in a track centre. Maybe I should win another time.”

But while Tidball could celebrate, it was a bad day for his men’s endurance team-mates as Tanfield crashed 40 metres from the line in team pursuit qualifying. With Britain already down to three riders at the time, they failed to set an official time and went out of the competition.

Britain had been on course for the second fastest qualifying time behind Denmark and a ticket to the medal rounds prior to the incident but Tanfield, a late call-up to the squad to replace the injured Ethan Hayter, began to lose the wheel of Dan Bigham and Ethan Vernon in the final laps.

As he pushed to keep up, Tanfield dipped his front wheel on to the blue band at the bottom of the track and lost control. The 26-year-old, part of the GB squad who won the world title in 2018, was taken to hospital and was diagnosed with a concussion.

Neah Evans missed out on bronze in the women’s individual pursuit, beaten by New Zealand’s Bryony Botha as American Chloe Dygert took gold.

There was success for Britain’s para-cyclists. Sophie Unwin and Jenny Holl took gold in the women’s B kilo time trial, with Lizzi Jordan piloted by Amy Cole claiming bronze in the same event.

Steve Bate and Chris Latham took bronze in the men’s B individual pursuit.

Earlier in the day, Jody Cundy became the second British para-cyclist to set a new world record at these Championships as he clocked a time of 10.427 seconds in the men’s C4 omnium flying 200 metres.

Great Britain’s defence of their men’s team pursuit world title ended in a crash in qualifying at the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow on Thursday morning.

Charlie Tanfield slipped coming out of the final corner at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome, and with Britain already down to three riders at that point they did not set an official time and went out of the competition.

Britain had been on course for the second fastest qualifying time behind Denmark and a ticket to the medal rounds prior to the incident.

Tanfield had come into the line up as a replacement for Ethan Hayter, who is out of these championships having been unable to recover from a broken collarbone in time, and had been struggling to hold the wheel of Dan Bigham and Ethan Vernon as they upped the pace in the finale.

As he fought to catch back up Tanfield, part of the GB squad that won the team pursuit world title in 2018, dropped his front wheel onto the blue band at the bottom of the track and lost control.

The 26-year-old received medical treatment on the track for several minutes before being able to walk off unassisted.