Great Britain top the track world championships medal table in Shanghai as Anna Morris wins three golds

Great Britain finished top of the medal table at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Shanghai, which ended on 18 October, with six gold, three silver and three bronze medals, according to the official standings after all 22 events.

The Netherlands were second with five golds, three of them won by Harrie Lavreysen. Denmark were third with two golds and three silvers. Germany won the second-highest number of medals, nine, but only two of them were gold.

Morris leads the endurance squad

All six British titles came from the endurance squad, and Anna Morris was part of three of them: the team pursuit on 15 October, the omnium on 16 October and the madison on 17 October.

Morris, Erin Boothman, Millie Couzens and Josie Knight beat the reigning champions, Italy, by more than five seconds in the team pursuit final, in 4 minutes 4.610 seconds. Megan Barker, who rode an earlier round, also received a gold medal.

Morris won the omnium on 125 points from Japan’s Tsuyaka Uchino and Denmark’s Amalie Dideriksen, Cyclingnews reported. A day later she and Boothman won the madison on 40 points, seven ahead of France’s Marion Borras and Clara Copponi, with Japan third.

“We are actually quite fresh together. My first Madison was only in September last year so I’m not sure who’s taking the lead on experience,” Morris said, according to Cyclingnews.

Couzens and Knight then met in an all-British individual pursuit final. Couzens won in 4:21.505, half a second ahead of her teammate. “I’m still a bit shocked. I had zero expectations coming in,” she said, as reported by Cyclingnews.

The men added two titles. Matthew Bostock won the scratch race on 15 October after a solo attack, finishing half a lap clear, and Mark Stewart won the points race on 16 October ahead of France’s Benjamin Thomas and Portugal’s Carlos Salgueiro.

Henry Hobbs, Noah Hobbs, Ethan Vernon and Oliver Wood took team pursuit bronze by beating France, and Joe Truman was third in the kilometre time trial.

Finucane on the podium three times

Emma Finucane won a medal in all three women’s sprint events but no gold. She took silver in the team sprint with Sophie Capewell and Rhianna Parris-Smith, behind China, and silver in the individual sprint behind China’s Yuan Liying.

On the final day she led the keirin into the home straight, BBC Sport reported, but finished third behind Alina Lysenko, racing as a neutral athlete, and Germany’s Lea Sophie Friedrich, 0.014 seconds off gold.

“To medal in all three races at the world champs, I’d never done that before,” she told BBC Sport.

Great Britain’s male sprinters raced without Matt Richardson. Before the championships, British Cycling said in a statement: “British Cycling can confirm that Matt Richardson has been withdrawn from the Great Britain Cycling Team squad for the upcoming 2026 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Shanghai, China.” Harry Ledingham-Horn, Ed Lowe and Truman finished sixth in the men’s team sprint.

Milan’s world record

Italy’s Jonathan Milan set the only world record of the championships, according to the official results. He rode 3:58.850 in qualifying for the individual pursuit on 16 October, 0.303 seconds inside the record of 3:59.153 he set at the 2024 world championships in Denmark.

Cyclingnews noted that he is the first rider under 3:59 for the 4 km event, and that he did it on a track close to sea level. Denmark’s Frederik Madsen also went under four minutes in qualifying, in 3:59.979.

Milan was slower in the final but still won comfortably, in 4:00.769 to Madsen’s 4:06.038. His teammate Filippo Ganna took bronze.

Lavreysen and the other champions

Lavreysen won the team sprint with Jeffrey Hoogland and Roy van den Berg on the opening day, then the keirin, and on 18 October the individual sprint, beating Australia’s Leigh Hoffman in two straight races. Cyclingnews and Escape Collective both put his career total at 23 world titles.

Denmark won the men’s team pursuit in 3:40.865 and closed the championships by winning the men’s madison through Carl-Frederik Bévort and Lasse Norman Leth.

Other titles went to China in the women’s team sprint, Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) in the women’s scratch race, Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) in the women’s elimination race, Lara Gillespie (Ireland) in the women’s points race, Pauline Grabosch (Germany) in the women’s time trial, Iúri Leitão (Portugal) in the men’s omnium, Tim Torn Teutenberg (Germany) in the men’s elimination race and Lysenko in the women’s keirin.