Neah Evans and the Team GB women’s team pursuit side took silver in the Olympic final after a dominant performance from Germany.
Evans, alongside Josie Knight, Laura Kenny and fellow Scot Katie Archibald, were beaten by six seconds as a relentless German display earned them the gold medal.
Germany lead by 1.3s after the first kilometre and had stretched that to more than two seconds by the half-way stage.
They had come on to the same straight as the GB riders as the race entered its final quarter and they pressed on to set another world record, shaving two seconds off their earlier efforts to finish in 4:04.242.
Evans told BBC Sport: “There’s a huge expectation for British Cycling because we have such a good reputation but there are so many strong nations.
“We came out fighting but it wasn’t to be. We’ll be back in Paris.”
Evans came into the team for the semi-final race against the USA, in which they briefly retook the world record before Germany set a new best time in their victory over Italy.
The 31-year-old did not turn full-time as a cyclist until 2017 after working as a veterinary surgeon. Initially she had been a fell-runner before injury prompted a change of sport.
Encouragement from her father Malcolm persuaded her to try cycling and it has been a rapid rise up through the sport.
She won silver and bronze representing Scotland at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia and has become a regular in the British Cycling squads since then, achieving World Cup and European success.
Olympic pedigree is in her blood. Her mother Ros competed for Great Britain in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in cross-country skiing and was also a national orienteering champion.
The family hail from Cuminestown, just outside Turriff in Aberdeenshire.
