Teenager Henry Hobbs dodged a serious last-lap crash to sprint to victory in the men's 10km scratch race at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, collecting a second gold medal of his debut Games.
The 19-year-old Englishman, part of the four-man team that took gold in the 4000m team pursuit earlier in the week, added the scratch title on Saturday to complete a three-medal haul after his bronze in Friday's elimination race. Hobbs, whose brother Noah rides professionally, edged out Australia's Thomas Cornish and England team-mate Ethan Vernon on the line.
Victory was decided as much by survival as by speed. A crash shortly before the start of the final lap left a number of riders requiring medical attention, with debris strewn across the boards and the remaining riders forced to pick their way through. Hobbs, tracking safely near the front, avoided the melee and timed his sprint to perfection.
"I didn't feel too good in the morning so I thought if it was a sprint it would be great for me as it only needed one effort," Hobbs told TNT Sports. "I'm surprised a crash didn't happen earlier because it was so fast - you always have to think you can win but I wasn't one hundred per cent confident."
The gold crowns a remarkable breakthrough week for Hobbs at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. After helping England to team pursuit gold and adding elimination-race bronze on Friday, the teenager's scratch success makes him one of the standout performers of the English track squad in Glasgow. Given the dangers of the discipline, his victory was a triumph of nerve as well as speed, and it leaves the 19-year-old with three medals from a Games he entered as a relative newcomer to the senior ranks. Elsewhere on Saturday, England's Sophie Unwin took bronze in the women's tandem B final with pilot Anna Whitworth-Hay.
Sources
