Neah Evans takes first major individual title at Track World Championships
The Scot finished ahead of Denmark’s Julie Leth and American Jennifer Valente
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Your support makes all the difference.Neah Evans won her first career rainbow jersey with victory in the women’s points race on the final day of the UCI Track World Championships.
The 32-year-old, part of Britain’s silver medal-winning team pursuit squad earlier in the week, took her first major individual title as she finished ahead of Denmark’s Julie Leth and American Jennifer Valente in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
The Scot picked up points in six of the intermediate sprints, never out of the podium places after winning the first of them in the 100-lap race, and was one of five riders in the race to gain two laps on the field, finishing seven points clear of Leth.
Evans said: “Brilliant. It’s not really sunk in yet, I’m full of adrenaline and excitement from the race, but delighted.”
There was a slightly confused finish to the race, with the bell for the final sprint ringing a lap early, meaning it took Evans a little longer to realise victory was hers.
She added: “They rang the bell and then we had [a sprint], and I wasn’t sure whether it was because we’d got the lap or what it was. I was like, ‘Just keep going.’
“It wasn’t quite the magical moment that you sometimes dream of but, yeah, it doesn’t matter!”
Evans’ success was Britain’s third gold of an encouraging week, in which they took a medal in all of the timed team events at a world championships for the first time since 2011, finishing fifth in the standings with 10 medals in all.
Two of those golds belonged to Ethan Hayter, part of the successful men’s team pursuit squad before he retained his omnium title on Saturday, though the 24-year-old was unable to add a third on Sunday as he and Ollie Wood settled for silver in the men’s Madison.
Hayter and Wood got points on the board early in the 200-lap race but could not keep up with a hot finish from French pair Donavan Grondin and Benjamin Thomas, who took 65 points to Britain’s 47 to claim gold on home soil while Belgium and Italy threatened Britain’s medal place late on.
“We definitely thought a medal was possible at the start and we kept ourselves in contention,” Hayter said. “We made a couple of mistakes about 80 laps in – we made one effort we didn’t need to and then missed a change and that was our main problem. But we went all-in in the last 20 laps and rescued a silver medal.”
And there was yet another medal for a member of Britain’s gold medal-winning men’s team pursuit squad. as Ethan Vernon took bronze in a crash-strewn elimination race that was won by defending champion Elia Viviani of Italy.
Sophie Capewell was eliminated from the women’s keirin at the semi-final stage, finishing 11th overall.