Jon Dibben made sure to mark his first ever world title in style as he sprinted to gold in the men’s points race on a night in which Great Britain took their tally of medals at the 2016 World Track Championships to six.
Dibben was a part of the men’s team pursuit quartet who had to settle for silver at London’s Olympic Velodrome last night but there was no denying him this time around in a thrilling battle on the track.
The 22-year-old made a strong start to the 160-lap race and went ahead after gaining an early lap and crucially he had enough left in the tank to finish just as strongly.
He actually finished equal on 48 points with Andreas Graf but after winning the final two sprints and crossing the finish line first, gold was Dibben’s, much to the delight of the packed home fans. "I'm lost for words," he said. "I came into this to give it my all. I rode it like an omnium points race. For 100 laps I was at my limit and in the last 20 everyone else just died off."
It concluded another successful evening for the home nations after Andy Tennant had earlier edged out fellow Brit Owain Doull by 0.175 seconds to clinch bronze in the men’s pursuit.
While there was also a gutsy ride from women’s team pursuit quartet who bounced back on missing out on the gold medal race yesterday by winning bronze.
The team of Laura Trott, Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne and Joanna Rowsell Shand had broken the British record with a time of 4:16:350 seconds earlier in the day to qualify for the bronze medal race.
And they went on to beat New Zealand in a dominant performance, as Trott picked up her second medal of the competition following yesterday’s scratch race triumph.
“After yesterday we were a bit disappointed so to come back today and post those times was probably better than we could have thought,” said Trott, who will also go in the omnium this weekend.
“It was the performance we should have done yesterday but I think we proved a few people wrong and proved that we do gell really well.
"We did not really spread the work out effectively yesterday but we spread the effort out on what people could give today and it paid off.
“I feel good at the minute. Yesterday gave me the confidence boost I needed and this has kept the momentum going.”
Tennant meanwhile was also on the podium for the second time in as many days following silver alongside Dibben in the men’s team pursuit yesterday.
And he couldn’t hide his delight after revealing his preparations for the Championships had been far from ideal.
“That’s the icing on the cake for me at these World Championships,” he said. “I was struggling a few weeks ago so to do a decent ride in the semi finals and then come away with a bronze, I could not be happier,” he said.
“The last couple of laps I was just flat out looking down at that black line.”
Elsewhere Mark Cavendish finished the day strongly with a second place finish in the elimination race to move up to seventh overall at the halfway stage of the omnium race.
The Manxman earlier finished sixth in the 15km scratch race and 13th in the pursuit.
And finally, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner successfully progressed to the quarter-finals of the men’s sprint.
Sportsbeat 2016