PTI
Rio de Janeiro, August 17: Four races in two Olympics. Four gold medals for Laura Trott. Not bad for a woman who says that she still feels ‘like a little girl riding around on her bicycle’.
Great Britain’s Trott romped to victory in the women’s track cycling Omnium event on the Rio boards Tuesday, leaving her rivals trailing in her tyre tracks and scrapping for podium places.
In winning the multi-discipline, two-day event and beating American veteran Sarah Hammer by a massive 24-point margin, Trott matched her feat at London 2012 when her Team Pursuit and Omnium titles made her the new golden girl of British cycling.
Last week she led the team pursuit quartet to victory in a world record time, becoming the first British woman to win three Olympic gold medals. Now she has four and at the age of 24 there is no telling how many she might eventually collect.
After cruising round the 100-lap points race Tuesday, the final portion of the six-element Omnium, she was congratulated by fiancé Jason Kenny who surpassed her Rio haul by one, winning three gold to take his tally to a British record-equalling six. Excess baggage fees may apply when they head to the airport here to fly home.
While like a machine on a bike, Trott let her mask slip as she cried tears of joy after the race. “I am so proud at what I achieved,” Trott told reporters after holding up a British flag with ‘Go Trotty Go’ emblazoned across it.
“I always thought how special London was. I went there without expectations, so to win two gold was just incredible. Then I thought, how on earth am I going to top that? And look what I have just done,” she added.
