Evans wins points race gold with late show, Hayter and Wood grab silver in madison at UCI World Championships

ByYara El-Shaboury

Updated 16/10/2022 at 14:52 GMT

Great Britain's Neah Evans won her first major gold medal at the 2022 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in the women's point race. From the first sprint, Evans was pushing and had ensured herself a podium spot as the race went on. Ethan Hayter and Oliver Wood made a late push to grab silver in the men's madison behind home team France. Stream the action live on eurosport.co.uk and discovery+.

Britain's Neah Evans won gold, and her first major individual title, in the women's points race at the 2022 Track Cycling World Championships.

She grabbed gold with 60 points after a thrilling finale, ahead of Denmark's Julie Leth (53) and American Jennifer Valente (51).

The three medallists all earned 40 lap points, but Evans pulled ahead of her competitors during the sprint laps, earning 20 points compared to Leth’s 13 and Valente’s 11.

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‘Phenomenal!’ – Evans snatches gold in points race

It was tight with 10 laps to go, with Leth totalling 53 points and Evans following behind with 36. But the 32-year-old latched onto a late move by Belgium's Lotte Kopecky to grab a lap, before soaring into first place in the final sprint.

"It's not really sunk in yet," Evans said after the race.

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"I'm full of adrenaline and excitement, but I'm delighted.

"I definitely felt like I had good legs, and I had a really good game plan going in, so I was quite confident."

With her victory, the Scot adds to the silver she won in the women’s team pursuit.

At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Evans won a silver medal in the team pursuit event alongside Katie Archibald, Laura Kenny and Josie Knight.

In the men's madison, France's Donavan Grondin and Benjamin Thomas dominated, and won gold by a comfortable margin in front of an incredible home crowd, with chants of 'Allez les blues' ringing throughout the Velodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Team GB's Ethan Hayter and Oliver Wood were not in a podium position for most of the race but raced into second in the dying moments to earn silver.

In the men's sprint, Harrie Lavreysen became a world champion for the 11th time and defended his title from last year, with the Dutch rider now having won four golds in a row in the event. Australian duo Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer won silver and bronze respectively.

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