FEATURE: Brown hoping hard work pays off twice

Yesterday we chatted to new World Ladies Cycle Speedway champion, Vicky Brown ahead of her challenge to win a second title in August at the British Championships in Ipswich this weekend. We start off by asking her how it felt to win her first world title.

You powered to victory to become World Champion at Wednesfield in front of a large crowd a few weeks ago. How did it feel crossing the line knowing what you had just achieved?

It felt unreal, and if I’m honest, I was a little bit relieved. I’ve trained hard all season but never really believed I could win with such a tough field. It still hasn’t really sunk in. I remember crossing the line thinking “oh my god I’ve won!”. Everything sort of fell in to place that day and I felt fit and fast around Wednesfield, which is now my favourite track!

As captain of the Womens Great Britain side once again, you lead your team to a clean sweep in the test series versus Australia and picking up the gold in the Federation cup. How was it captaining your country, this time on home soil?

I felt honoured to be asked to be captain again and to lead the team in front of the home crowd was something I’d always wanted to do. I couldn’t be more proud of all the GB girls, it was amazing riding with them and showing the home crowd just home much women’s racing has come on in the last few years. The GB women’s team has only lost 1 match out of 10 over the last 4 years, which I would say is in amazing achievement! We had some criticism about the GB girls being too strong for the Aussie girls but you have to think, would they go easy on us if it was the other way around?

Vicky Brown after she just won her first World title.

Vicky Brown after she just won her first World title.

Last year in the British at Bury, you just lost out on the top spot in a run off with Charlie-Jane Herbert. You won bronze in 2012 in Newport. How confident are you of adding the gold medal to your collection this year?

I would never say I was confident about winning because Cycle Speedway is one of those sports where anything can happen. Like I’ve said, I’ve trained hard and really worked on my technique and speed through out the season. The only thing I can do is train hard, prepare well, ride the to the best of my ability and see what happens.

Who do you see as your main competitors for the title?

All the girls have stepped up their game this seasons and worked hard to make girls racing more competitive. I’d have to say Michelle Whitehead and Lauren Hookway have been on form all season, but you can’t forget Lauren Jacobs and Charlie-Jane Herbert with their home track advantage. Also Lucy Whitehead has hit her peak performance just in time to finish fourth in the worlds, and with her experience in big events such as this, she’s one to watch out for.

You’ve been at the forefront of Womens racing for some time now. What do you hope for Womens Cycle Speedway in the future? Do you think we could see a female rider in the Open final one day?

I hope that women’s racing can keep growing and developing as it has been doing over the last few years. It’s had its setbacks with people in the sport not seeing the potential women’s racing has to offer, but all the girls are turning heads and proving we were worth the watch with how were riding right now. That would be amazing to see a female up there and challenging the men, but for now I’d like to see girls racing become a bigger and better event and get the backing it deserves.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Vicky, hopefully you will have another good weekend coming up!


 

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