Josie Knight, holding the world record sign, on the podium at the Europeans with her Great Britain team mates after their gold medal ride (Photo: Roberto Bettini-Sprint Cycling Agency)
Josie Knight, a former Irish international who medalled at the Europeans for Ireland as a junior, has broken the team pursuit world record twice in one day as part of the Great Britain line-up.
Riding to gold at the European Track Championships in Konya, Turkey, Knight, Katie Archibald, Anna Morris and Millie Couzens recorded a time of 4:03.634 in the first round of the competition.
That broke the world record, by 0.608 seconds, set by Germany in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Germany also broke the world record twice in the same day at the Games, lowering it by six seconds to 4:04.242 and deposing the British as record holders and OIympic champions.
However, Great Britain has now taken the record back. And not content with setting one world record at the Europeans on Monday, the British went out again in the finals and bested their own world record time from earlier in the day.
They stopped the clock at 4:02.808, after riding the 4km race distance in a time of 59.306km per hour. They lowered their own world record by 0.174 seconds, beating Germany in the gold-silver ride.
That performance brought to four Knight’s tally of senior European titles. She has won three team pursuit golds – 2026, 2023, 2020 – and was individual pursuit European champion in 2024.
She has also won two world titles, in the team pursuit in 2023 and 2024, and has Olympic team pursuit silver and bronze medals in her palmarès.
Knight was born in Britain but her family later settled in Dingle, Co Kerry, where she grew up. She raced for Ireland on road and track as a junior, winning silver in the individual pursuit at the junior Europeans in Portugal back in 2014. She declared for Great Britain four years later.