Hamish's Profile

Growing up in Morpeth, the North-East of England, Hamish Turnbull is a track sprinter who showed promise from an early age and became part of the British Cycling talent team aged just 14. Last summer, Turnbull was selected for his first Olympic Games, in Paris where he was part of the team sprint squad who took home a silver medal.

Turnbull has impressed throughout his career, becoming the youngest rider in history to claim a national track sprint title, in 2020; a title previously held by multiple Olympic champions Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny. Turnbull continued to put in consistent performances and was rewarded with selection for the sprint podium programme, coached by Kenny, in 2021. That year saw him take part in elite competition for the first time, with participations at world cup events, achieving fourth place in the team sprint at the European Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland, and fifth in the same event the world championships in Roubaix, France.

Turnbull’s momentum resulted in selection to Team England for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022. Turnbull took part in all three sprint events, with a silver medal in the team sprint his greatest reward, riding alongside Joe Truman and Ryan Owens. It marked the first medal of Turnbull’s elite career. He finished ninth in the keirin, and in the individual sprint he went head-to-head with Great Britain teammate Jack Carlin of Scotland, who bested Turnbull to qualify for the bronze medal race.

Later that year, back as part of the Great Britain sprint team, he won bronze at both the European and world championships in a team comprising Carlin and Ali Fielding. The team would ride together heading into 2023, where they began the year with silver in the European championships in Grenchen, Switzerland, and built towards the home world championships in Glasgow. With the addition of Joe Truman to the team, the squad narrowly missed out on a medal at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome, beaten into fourth place by an in-form French team. 

Moving in 2024, preparations towards the Paris Olympic Games have begun with another good performance for the team sprint at the European Championships in Apeldoorn, as the  trio of Turnbull, Carlin and Fielding took fourth place against against Poland. Turnbull also posted a fourth place finish in the individual sprint and seventh in the keirin. The UCI Track World Cup in Adelaide, Australia, followed, and the team won bronze, with the addition to the team of Ed Lowe. Carlin, Lowe and Turnbull went one better in Milton in Canada most recently, making it to the final where they secured an impressive silver medal.

Having been selected for his debut Olympic Games, Turnbull and his team sprint teammates Jack Carlin and Ed Lowe saw success as they flew through qualifying rounds to face an unstoppable Dutch team in the gold medal final. Three fantastic individual laps delivered a national record time of 41.814, to see them take an incredible silver medal.

In the individual events, Turnbull delivered strong performances in a stacked field, coming sixth overall in the sprint but unfortunately being caught up in a crash in the keirin semi-final which ultimately took him out of the competition.

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