Emma Finucane finished a successful if bittersweet week at the Track Cycling World Championships with a bronze medal in the keirin, missing out on an elusive gold by just 14 thousandths of a second.
The 23-year-old also took silver in the team and individual sprint earlier in the week in Shanghai, making this the first time she has won a medal in all three events at a World Championships.
But she was unable to add to her two rainbow jerseys, won in the sprint in 2023 and 2024, as neutral athlete Alina Lysenko pipped her to gold on Sunday, with Germany’s two-time keirin world champion Lea Sophie Friedrich taking silver.
Finucane said: “I had a special feeling about today, I felt really strong and going into that final, I don’t know what else I could have done, to be honest. I raced with my instinct, I didn’t come off thinking ‘I wish I gave more’, I gave it everything I could out there. To get a bronze medal at the end of it is something to be really proud of. This is the first time I’ve medalled in all three events at a world championships.
“I really, really want that gold! And for a split second I was like ‘maybe I’ve got it’. The field today was really stacked, women’s sprint is just moving forward and to be part of it, medalling in every event, I can be really, really proud of that.
“The confidence I’ll gain from this competition is everything, I was putting myself in winning positions. All the momentum, all the confidence I’ve gained this week, I think I can be really proud of that. Roll on LA [2028]!”
The Welshwoman won silver in the team sprint alongside Sophie Capewell, her teammate from the gold medal-winning squad at the Paris Olympics in 2024, with Rhianna Parris-Smith replacing the now retired Katy Marchant in the trio.
Great Britain topped the medal table in Shanghai with 12 medals including six golds, with Anna Morris claiming a hat-trick of rainbow jerseys and GB continuing to dominate the women’s endurance events, winning the Madison, omnium and team pursuit, as well as winning gold and silver in the individual pursuit.