Venues: Glasgow and across Scotland Dates: 3-13 August |
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Great Britain have won four gold medals on day five of the UCI Cycling World Championships.
Kieran Reilly took the men’s elite BMX freestyle park for the first gold, while Ethan Vernon kick-started the track team with gold in the men’s elimination race.
In the men’s B sprint, para-cyclist Neil Fachie eased to victory with pilot Matthew Rotherham.
Neah Evans and Elinor Barker were crowned world madison champions.
Jack Carlin took bronze in the men’s elite sprint as he defeated Polish rider Mateusz Rudyk.
Great Britain now have a total of 37 medals in the Championships, which run until 13 August in Glasgow and across Scotland.
Reilly’s big rainbow moment
In the men’s elite BMX freestyle park, Reilly beat former champion Rimu Nakamura of Japan and second-placed Olympic champion Logan Martin of Australia.
Newcastle-born Reilly, 22, displayed a superb performance, scoring 95.80 compared to Martin’s 95.30 to claim the coveted rainbow jersey given to all gold medal winners.
Reilly told BBC Sport: “It feels like a dream come true, I cannot believe it. It is a run I will remember forever.”
In Glasgow’s Chris Hoy Velodrome, Ethan Vernon won GB’s first medal on the track in the evening’s men’s elimination race.
Vernon – also a road rider on the World Tour – dug out a gutsy victory after Dutch rider Matthijs Buchli came up the track and took the British rider out.
“When I crashed I didn’t really know the rules, so I just got back on and sprinted back on,” said Vernon.
Evans and Barker completed over 120 laps in the madison. A crash in the closing stages resulted in the race having an additional nine laps. Barker was down to two laps to go when the gun neutralised the race, but the duo went on to win by three points.
“I didn’t know if I had nine laps left in me, but we got to the front and we just went hard,” said Evans.
Barker, who has won her second gold of the Championships added that their success could be a springboard towards the Paris Olympics in 2024: “We are in a really nice position. Before Tokyo it was kind of a mess. It was impossible to put a marker down, we were trying to race through Covid.
“We didn’t get to race the Australians, the Americans, the Canadians and it all felt really hard to predict.
“Now we can take this confidence and hopefully put it into something good next year.”
Fachie and Rotherham were dominant in their first and second race, meaning a third round against German opponents wasn’t necessary.
Fachie now has 18 world titles: “First two world titles as a dad – and it does make it extra special,” he said.
“When you are up racing side by side and you are going for gold you hear that crowd roar, it is buzzing.”
There are a number of British track riders hoping to win more medals in the coming days.
Earlier on day five, GB’s Emma Finucane produced a national record in the women’s sprint qualifier, with a time of 10.234.
She will now face Japan’s Mina Sato in the last 16 on Tuesday.
Fellow GB rider Sophie Capewell, who along with Finucane, was part of the trio to claim a silver medal in the team event, will race French rider Taky Marie-Divine Kouame after finishing second fastest in qualifying.