Rio Olympics 2016: Jessica Ennis-Hill backs former training partner Katy Marchant to make an impact on the track
Marchant switched from cycling to the velodrome in time for the Rio Games
JESSICA ENNIS-HILL has hailed former training partner Katy Marchant as a true winner in the making.
Marchant, 23, is bidding to follow a path blazed by Rebecca Romero, who switched from rowing to win cycling gold at Beijing 2008.
She will start her Rio campaign today in the individual cycling sprint, just three years after being told to get on a bike by the man who coached Ennis-Hill to Olympic glory.
Marchant was a talented multi-event athlete, training alongside the Olympic and world heptathlon champion, when coach Toni Minichiello spotted her prowess on an exercise bike in a Sheffield gym and contacted British Cycling chiefs.
Ennis-Hill admitted: “I’m made up for Katy that she has been selected for Rio.
“She trained with us as an heptathlete. She did a couple of bike sessions and she was generating such huge power, Toni told her to have a go at cycling. What she has achieved already in such a short space of time is incredible.
“She’s so hard-working and a really nice girl. I’m just so happy for her.
“She is so competitive, definitely gritty and gets stuck in. She wants to win, to be at champion- ships and come out on top.”
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But Australian-born Irish cyclist Shannon McCurley will not be going any further in her first Olympics.
McCurley, the Republic’s first ever female Olympic track cyclist, finished fourth in the repechage of the keirin despite putting in the performance of her life.
Having come fifth in the heats, the 24-year-old found a late burst of speed in the last lap of the repechage, to finish within 0.268sec of winner Anastasiia Voinova, of Russia.
McCurley said: “That was a tough one. It was the hardest race of my life.
“I’m in the best form of my life, and just wanted to get through but the field was stronger than ever. That was hard fast racing and the quickest keirin I’ve ever had.
“I definitely thought that, compared to other races I really held my own in the field.
“Even my coach said I held my own and definitely belonged there. He’s never said that before.
“Another four years and I’ll be looking for a medal, this is only my second year.”
She added: “I’ve got the taste for the Olympics now, I want so much more for Tokyo, I want to ride for a medal.
“The amount of support from everyone is overwhelming — from Australia and Ireland.
“I’m sitting reading the messages with tears in my eyes. I would love to be racing this afternoon, I wanted more, but I rode hard and gave it my all.”