England won the men's team pursuit at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Thursday, beating Olympic champions Australia in a dramatic final after illness forced a late change to a line-up that had never ridden together.
World champion Josh Charlton was the casualty. After a ragged qualifying ride, he was sick over a team-mate's bike, and Will Tidball was drafted in for the final. Tidball joined Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon and 19-year-old Henry Hobbs, who was competing at his first major championships.
England had qualified two seconds slower than Australia, and the enforced reshuffle looked risky. "I wasn't actually meant to be doing this event this evening," Tidball told BBC Sport. "To get subbed in, having not done any efforts in this team, or in this track, or in this order, it was always going to be a bit of a gamble."
The final swung both ways. England built an early lead, Australia edged back in front shortly after halfway, but Hobbs held on, keeping England as a quartet for three punishing laps after the Australians had dropped to a trio. "Henry did way longer than he should have done on the front and so did Charlie," Vernon said. "I could tell we were up but we were also starting to fall apart a bit."
England prevailed by 1.131 seconds in a Commonwealth Games record time of three minutes 47.092 seconds, ending a run of three straight silvers in the discipline.
Vernon and Tanfield were part of the Team GB quartet beaten by Australia in the Paris Olympics final, making the victory a statement ahead of the next Games. "The Aussies always turn up to Commonwealth Games," Vernon said. "They go full equipment, good skinsuit, good equipment, everything. In England we go with a different mindset. We save stuff for the Olympics. We don't have the best skinsuits. We are doing the best we can and to beat them without that is special."
Tanfield, 29, collected a second Commonwealth gold eight years after his first, while Vernon added to a haul that already included national, European and world titles. Charlton, watching on, said it was "more nerve-wracking than being in it". "It was tight at times but I had faith they were going to pull away at the end and they did," he added. The world champion hopes to be fit for the individual pursuit on Friday.
For Hobbs, the moment was the biggest of a young career. "It is my first year as an elite. Even getting selected for this was a big surprise," he said. "To pull off the win is amazing."
Sources
