Home favourite Jemma Reekie took 800 metres silver on the final night of action at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow for her first global medal.

The 25-year-old Scot clocked a time of 2:02.72 as she finished 0.82 seconds behind Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma.

Reekie told the BBC: “I knew those girls were going to throw something at me that they were confident with, and they were just better than me today.

“I didn’t want anything other than the win, but first senior medal, I made some mistakes and I’ll learn something from it.

“It’s my first senior medal and I’ve got to take it. I’ve got one now and I definitely want one of those Olympic ones, and it will be a good stepping stone forwards.”

There was also bronze for Great Britain in the women’s 4x400m relay earlier in the evening as the team finished with a haul of four medals.

Laviai Nielsen, twin sister Lina Nielsen, Ama Pipi and Jessie Knight again set a new national record – as they had done in the morning’s heats – with a time of 3:26.36.

They came in behind the Netherlands (3:25.07) and the United States, with Jamaica not finishing after the baton came out of Charokee Young’s hand on the third leg, seemingly via accidental contact from Pipi.

Pipi said: “It was a really messy leg but I just stayed focused on what I needed to do and tried to give it to Jessie in a good position, and I think I did that.”

GB’s other two medals had come in the form of golds on Saturday for Reekie’s fellow Scot Josh Kerr in the men’s 3,000m and Molly Caudery in the women’s pole vault.

British pair Georgia Bell and Revee Walcott-Nolan were fourth and sixth respectively in the women’s 1500m final, and team-mate Cindy Sember was seventh in the women’s 60m hurdles, won in a new world record time of 7.65secs by Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas.

The men’s 1500m final included GB’s Adam Fogg coming 14th.

Also among Sunday evening’s finals was the men’s pole vault title being retained by Sweden’s Olympic champion Armand Duplantis.

Michael van Gerwenadmitted he was not at his best despite winning night three at the 2024 BetMGM Premier League at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro with a 6-5 final win over Luke Humphries.

The Dutchman won in Berlin last week and on a night when teenager Luke Littler disappointed a supportive crowd by checking out in the quarter-finals, he again showed his mettle in a last-leg decider against the world champion

Van Gerwen, who is three points clear of Michael Smith at the top of the table, said: “Even without my best performance I think I  did a great job and sometimes that is really important.

“Double six let me down tonight but outside that my finishing and the way I played the game was a good standard.

“Of course my score could have been a lot better but sometimes that is darts. Another win, it is good.

“I always believe in my ability and I think I did the right things at the right moments.

“I have put so much pressure on myself. No targets. I’d say I’m at 90 per cent of my game.”

Humphries led 1-0 and 4-2 and perhaps should have made it 5-2 but the Dutchman came back to 4-4 and a 180 in the ninth leg helped him forge ahead 5-4 only to see Humphries respond to level and take it into the final leg when another 180 gave Van Gerwen the advantage and he clinched victory with double top.

In his first season in the competition Humphries said: “It was important to play well.

“I was proud of the way I played and I am where I want to be, in the top four.

“It is my first year in it and I am going to enjoy it.”

Littler made an early exit after a thrilling battle with Gerwyn Price.

The 17-year-old was given a great reception by the crowd but the Welshman stood strong.

The 2021 world champion  just missed double 12 for a nine darter at 3-2 down – Nathan Aspinall also came agonisingly close to a perfect nine-dart leg during his defeat by Humphries –  but came back to level at 3-3.

Littler went 4-3 up but again Price came back to win the next two legs before the young Englishman levelled at 5-5 but Price triumphed 6-5 in a tense last-leg decider.

Peter Wright was left frustrated after coming up well short against Van Gerwen.

Wright was cheered to the rafters when he returned to home soil with a highly-anticipated quarter-final clash but was sent packing with a 6-2 defeat.

The Scotsman said: “I was just thinking Michael is not even on it and I couldn’t even punish him. It is one of those games. Annoying.

“You see them on TV and you see the players and think, ‘oh he’s playing rubbish’ and you step up but it couldn’t find anything. It wouldn’t go in.

“I don’t know, maybe I have too much respect for Michael, I don’t know.

“But the crowd was fantastic. It was nice to see a full house and I really appreciate that and I hope they enjoy the rest of the night.

“I was gutted I let them down.

“Even at 5-1 down I was thinking, Michael is not on it, still I could win this game.

“I know what my game is and I was ready but Michael probably would have stepped up if I started hitting something.”

Sir Chris Hoy believes Katie Archibald is on track for next summer’s Paris Olympics after seeing her storm to overall victory in the UCI Track Champions League.

Two-time Olympic champion Archibald admitted she was far from her best at the World Championships in Glasgow in August, when the intense spotlight of a home worlds came as she was still coming to terms with the tragic loss of her partner Rab Wardell 12 months earlier.

But just a few months later, the 29-year-old Scot showed her class to win the Champions League crown for a second time, wrapping up her victory during the final two rounds in London at the weekend.

“It’s incredibly impressive,” Hoy told the PA news agency. “We’re starting to see that spark coming back, the smile, the enjoyment of the racing. Just life coming back into her after what was an incredibly difficult year.

“She wasn’t at her best at the world championships and I think this is a significant step forward from the worlds and it really does bode well for what is a massively important year for her and for the team.

“And they need her. The team really does rely on a few big-name individuals, not to carry the team but to inspire the team.

“When the big names are firing and on form it lifts everyone else, so she’s absolutely central to the British Cycling campaign and it’s looking good.

“I think she’s definitely getting better and getting to where she needs to be.”

The made-for-TV Champions League, which has just completed its third season, sees endurance riders like Archibald compete in two races per round, the scratch race and the elimination.

It is a long way from the team pursuit and the Madison that Archibald will aim for in Paris, and comprises only two of the four elements of the omnium, but it will be a significant confidence booster all the same.

“This is not a direct comparison to those events but it almost doesn’t matter,” added Hoy, who is an ambassador for the Champions League.

“It’s about how she’s responding to the competition and getting inspired by the crowd and just starting to bring back that spark and getting her life back on track after what she’s been through.

“As a rider you want to use the event in the right way. I would want to come in and see it as an opportunity to learn about my rivals, see them in some different situations and try different tactics.

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“If it doesn’t work out it’s not the end of the world, you’ve not missed out on a world title or an Olympic medal, but having said that the overall Champions League jersey and trophy is a massive thing now, it’s being recognised.”

Although star names like Archibald and Dutch sprinter Harrie Lavreysen drew the crowds, this season saw arguably the weakest field yet contest the Champions League with several riders preferring to focus their training elsewhere as the clock ticks down to Paris.

However, Hoy said he believed the still young series – which aims to elevate the profile of track cycling beyond the Olympics and annual world championships – is developing well.

“I think it’s pretty close to what I hoped it would be,” he said. “I think they’ve delivered exactly what they promised and probably more.

“This year it’s been a challenge with it being an Olympic year but the organisers aren’t trying to hide that, and I think next year there will be a rebound when, post-Olympics, riders are freed of the pressure and stress of an Olympic year and they want to go out and ride their bikes and have fun.”

An integral part of the Frankel story, Ian Mongan enjoyed a day in the sun he will never forget when winning the 2011 Juddmonte International.

The Glasgow-born jockey was a 32-year-old whose riding career was nearer its end than its start when teaming up with the late great Sir Henry Cecil in the mid-noughties, but became a vital cog in the Warren Place wheel.

While opportunities to showcase his talent at the top level were relatively infrequent, Mongan proved he was more than capable of getting the job done on the Knavesmire when breaking his Group One duck aboard the popular Twice Over.

“I’ve always thought a lot of him,” Cecil said in the immediate aftermath.

“He’s my second jockey and is very underrated. If he got better rides he’d be right in the top flight.”

Twice Over was already dual Champion Stakes hero and a Coral-Eclipse winner when returning to York 12 years ago, having been narrowly denied by Rip Van Winkle in the 2010 International – and yet he lined up as the apparent second string.

The stable’s chief hope was the brilliant racemare Midday, a six-time Group One winner and the pick of Cecil’s number one rider Tom Queally.

Both horses carried the colours of Khalid Abdullah, who at that stage was still chasing an elusive first victory in a race he had sponsored since 1988.

Mongan, keen to grasp the moment with both hands, was optimistic. He said: “Obviously Tom was on Midday because he’d done very well on her, but going into the race I felt I actually had the best chance.

“Twice Over was such a lovely horse, such a gentleman and such an easy ride as well, so I was full of confidence beforehand.”

Only five runners went to post, with Midday and Twice Over second and third in the betting behind Aidan O’Brien’s dominant Hardwicke Stakes scorer Await The Dawn.

Midday and Await The Dawn locked horns inside the final quarter-mile, but it was Twice Over who finished best to beat his stablemate to top spot by three-quarters of a length.

“Things went to plan,” Mongan recalled.

“I was getting there almost too easily actually and I remember as I passed Daryll Holland (riding Zafisio, finished fourth) he shouted ‘Go Mongy go’!

“I went for Twice Over, then I waited and then I went for him again. Midday had maybe gone a bit soon, but he stayed on really well.

“He was probably one of the easiest winners I’ve ridden and for it to be in a Group One was fantastic.”

Mongan remembders the return to the winner’s enclosure with great fondness, adding: “It was a great day, especially for Henry to finish first and second. I’ll always remember Aidan O’Brien coming over to congratulate him and Henry gave him a pat on the backside!

“I’ve never ridden a horse like Twice Over as he not only needed a lead horse on the gallops, but he also needed one to get him there as he was so lazy. It was quite funny actually.

“But as soon as he turned onto the gallops and went, he covered so much ground it was amazing.”

Another Cecil inmate Mongan remembers fondly, albeit for different reasons, is Bullet Train, who was perhaps the most famous pacemaker of modern times.

While well fancied for the Derby in 2010 and a smart horse in his own right, the son of Sadler’s Wells is best known as the galloping and racing companion for his illustrious half-brother Frankel.

In all Bullet Train made the running for his unbeaten sibling in six Group One races, with Mongan the man on his back on five of those occasions.

“It was an easy job because Bullet Train was brilliant – he knew his job, he’d ping the gates and lead Frankel, as he did at home as well,” said Mongan.

“Myself and Henry and Tom had a chat about it and it was all about treating the races almost like a piece of work.

“I think Frankel’s most devastating performance was when he won the Queen Anne (in 2012) and I just went a good gallop without going silly and I tried to pick up from the four pole to the two to get the race going. Frankel would normally take over two out and go and do his thing.

“It worked for us because Bullet Train was such a good horse. I think he could have won a Group One at one point, but he had a job to do and he did it great.

“With him being Frankel’s half-brother it was such a great story and I was really lucky to be part of it all. They were such good times and I miss it.”

Frankel, of course, retired unbeaten at the end of 2012, with that year’s Juddmonte International one of the standout performances in his remarkable 14-race career.

The following year the sport mourned the lost of his legendary trainer and Mongan retired from the saddle at the end of that season.

He said: “When Henry passed I think I rode the first winner for Jane (widow) at Yarmouth and at the end of that season I handed my licence in.

“Henry got me going as I was struggling for a long time to get good rides and struggling with my weight, but getting out of bed each morning to ride Henry’s horses was so enjoyable.

“After Henry passed I was going to go back to riding at Wolverhampton and Brighton, but I didn’t have the hunger for it so I called it a day and personally felt I ended on a high.”

These days Mongan acts as assistant trainer to his wife Laura, who memorably secured Classic glory with Harbour Law in the 2016 St Leger at Doncaster.

Mongan admits times are tougher seven years on, but the appetite for success remains fervent.

He said: “Laura is the only lady to ever train the Leger winner, so that was fantastic.

“We’re still training now. We haven’t got the calibre of horses we did, but we’ll keep trying.”

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.”

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.