Carmarthen youngsters given help by Olympic champions

Ed Clancy and Dani Rowe were on hand at Towy Riders on Monday morning ahead of Finucane’s Olympic bow in the team sprint, the first of three events she is racing in this week.

The velodrome in the town is unrecognisable from Finucane’s early days thanks to a facelift provided by £296,000 of National Lottery funding and Rowe can’t wait to see how the 21-year-old fares in the French capital.

Ed Clancy and Dani Rowe passed on their experience to the youngsters. (Image: Huw Fairclough)

The young cyclists want to follow in the footsteps of local hero Emma Finucane. (Image: Huw Fairclough)

Dani Rowe (pictured) won team pursuit gold at London 2012. (Image: Huw Fairclough)“I think three golds is realistic,” she said.

“She has proven she is such a huge talent; we saw that in the World Championships when she won sprint gold.

“The team sprint are looking very strong, and she’s proved herself in the keirin as well.

“It’s a privilege to be in that position, to have the opportunity to win three gold medals, and we are all behind her here in Wales and throughout the nation.”

Rowe won team pursuit gold at London 2012 and bronze representing Wales at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Finucane is one of nine Welsh cyclists in the Team GB squad in Paris and Rowe is relishing seeing her nation’s golden generation take to the global stage.

“A lot of it is down to The National Lottery, there has been a huge amount of money pumped into the sport and I can see that here,” she said.

“The Carmarthen track I’m looking at has had around £300,000 pumped in for regeneration projects, Towy Riders have had around £30,000.

The town velodrome received £296,000 of National Lottery funding. (Image: Huw Fairclough)

There's a huge amount of cycling talent coming through Wales. (Image: Huw Fairclough)Dani Clancy (pictured) won three gold medals at the Summer Olympic Games. (Image: Huw Fairclough)“It helps with building from grassroots up. These youngsters have had the opportunity to have those coaches and the pathway, they have the role models like Geraint Thomas and Becky James, who Emma has mentioned being one of her heroes.

“There’s a huge amount of talent coming through and it’s great to see so many Welsh riders in the Games this year.”

Finucane is looking to become the first British female cyclist to win individual sprint gold since Victoria Pendleton in 2008 and Clancy, who won the first of his three consecutive team pursuit golds in Beijing, believes she can do just that.

“I think she will step up,” he said. “It’s not just physical performance, mentally I think she’s in the right place.

“She presents herself well publicly and behind the scenes. Everything is moving in the right direction for her.

“She can follow Laura Kenny and Victoria Pendleton as the next big shining light. She can go on to do big things and it’s great to see how it is inspiring people here in her hometown.

“This is where it starts. This facility is a big funnel to inspire children and whether they make it to the very top or not, it doesn’t really matter.

“They’ll be better for it. They’ll learn all sort of high-performance principles at a young age which they wouldn’t any other way.”

Few will be prouder should Finucane scale the Olympic summit than Robyn Davies, her first coach at Towy Riders.

Davies spotted her precocious talent at an early age and for all her success in recent years, she has not forgotten her roots.

“When Emma is back she will come down and ride around with the kids,” he said.

“She gives her time back to the club and gives them the inspiration.

“It’s quite surreal to think that someone who went round the track here can reach that level and is one of the favourites to be successful this week.

“The kids are going to see someone who rode locally and is one of them – Emma’s family is still part of the club.

“They feel they can do the same with hard work and dedication. One of these riders in front of me could be the next one.”

More than £30 million is raised every week for good causes, including sport, through people playing The National Lottery.

The funding helps elite sport and also has a huge impact at grassroots level, as Davies can testify.

“It made a massive difference,” he said. “We used to have kids coming down here on bikes that weren’t really suitable to ride around on the track.

“The initial funding we had was to buy bikes that kids could borrow so they could ride around on proper bikes. So many kids benefitted from that.

“The old concrete at the track was crumbling and it was getting patched up. It wasn’t the best.

“We got a big lump sum of funding that renovated the whole track and it’s amazing now. We have really benefitted from that.”