• ‘For it to happen the way it did was very confusing emotionally’ • Laura Kenny says husband Jason is considering retirement

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Katie Archibald thought she had blown it before claiming her first Track Cycling World Championships individual title with victory in the omnium on Friday’s third day.

The 23-year-old from Milngavie won the opening two of four disciplines, but was clinging on by the end of the concluding points race. She finished the day elated, wearing a world champion’s rainbow jersey to complement her shock of pink hair.

Elinor Barker takes World Championship silver in scratch race Read more

“I thought it was home time,” said Archibald, who won ahead of Holland’s Kirsten Wild and Amy Cure of Australia. “There was a point where I kept chasing. I put way too much into the chase watching Cure.

“And Wild just kept swinging up, swinging up. So I thought: ‘Well, I’m just going to have to chase.’

“And then she attacks and I thought: ‘Of course she attacks. That’s the right thing to do! I’m going to lose. Well done.’

“For it to happen the way it did, thinking I was either going to be last or first, was very confusing emotionally.”

Archibald’s striking individualism was apparent when she first came to the attention of British Cycling in 2013. With a pierced lip, tattoos and, most likely, blue hair – she changes hair colour regularly and cannot recall exactly – she caught the attention of the then head coach Shane Sutton.

“The first time I met Shane he comes up to me and says ‘You look terrifying’ and just walks away,” Archibald added. “And I don’t think he meant it as a compliment. I don’t know what he thinks now, probably still look terrifying.”

Sutton resigned as technical director last April amid allegations of discrimination, which he denies and which sparked an independent review which is ongoing.

Archibald laughed off the comments and the former junior swimmer has come a long way since. Despite the off-the-bike turmoil, Britain won six of 10 Olympic track titles in Rio – Archibald was part of the gold medal-winning team pursuit squad – and a youthful team has three medals from three days of competition here.

After Elinor Barker’s silver and Chris Latham’s bronze in their respective scratch races, Archibald reigned supreme as she emulated Laura Kenny (nee Trott) as world champion.

With the two-time Olympic omnium champion absent pregnant – expecting her first child with six-time Olympic gold medallist Jason Kenny and in the BBC TV studio as a pundit on Friday – Archibald was given an individual focus here.

The omnium has been revised since Rio, to feature four bunch events over one day.

Archibald won the opening scratch race and the tempo race before a fifth-placed finish in the elimination behind Cure saw them enter the 80-lap (20km) points race level.

Archibald scored seven points in the first two sprints and then Cure went on the attack. But all Cure’s effort was in vain as it came down to the final sprint, where double points were available.

Archibald finished fourth for two points to do enough to win with 123 points. Wild finished ahead of Cure to take silver and the Australian had to settle for bronze.

It was Archibald’s second world title after the team pursuit success in Cali, Colombia in 2014 at her first Track World Championships.

Olympic silver medallist Callum Skinner earlier exited the men’s sprint competition with a second round defeat to Max Niederlag. Ryan Owens advanced and will meet the German in Saturday’s best-of-three quarter-finals.

Archibald is also in action, in the three-kilometres individual pursuit, while Barker and Emily Nelson race in the first Track World Championships women’s Madison.

The UCI, cycling’s world governing body, are hoping to persuade Olympic officials the two-rider relay should return for Tokyo 2020.

Jason Kenny, meanwhile, is contemplating retirement, his wife Laura Kenny has said. The six-times Olympic champion is absent from this week’s track world championships in Hong Kong, taking an extended break following last year’s Olympics as he considers whether to continue to the 2020 Games in Tokyo or quit altogether.

The 29-year-old won three Olympic golds in Rio to draw level with Sir Chris Hoy as Great Britain’s most successful Olympian with six golds and one silver. Laura Kenny, herself a four-times Olympic champion, told BBC Sport: “He’s having six months to decide what he wants to do, whether to carry on or whether to retire. I’m not sure he even knows to be totally honest. As athletes, you always want to carry on, you always want to go to the next one.”