Commonwealth Games: Scotland's Jack Carlin 'disappointed' despite silver

  • Published
Media caption,

Commonwealth Games: Scotland's Jack Carlin claims silver in men's Keirin

When Jack Carlin crossed the line in second place in the keirin final, something about his body language told you he was not happy.

The bowed head and slumped shoulders, before a belated rise to lift his hand in the air and take the acclaim of the Olympic velodrome crowd, did not scream elation.

Carlin has a clutch of medals from Olympics, World and European Championships, and Commonwealth Games, but none of them are gold.

"I think silver, as much as it's great to be on the podium, it's the first loser in many respects," the 25-year-old told BBC Scotland.

"But I've been in fourth place many times myself as well - the last time in the keirin at the Commies. It's definitely a step up from that."

Many might feel Carlin is being harsh on himself. It's not exactly easy to win a major medal - and he has eight of them. By any measure, he is an elite performer.

He had to put to the back of his mind the semi-final crash that left England's Joe Truman, one of his friends, in a wheelchair with a suspected broken collarbone and focus on the job.

Defending champion and gold-medal favourite Matthew Glaetzer of Australia also went down in that crash, in theory making Carlin's path easier.

The fact Nicholas Paul of Trinidad and Tobago rode off the front in the final lap added to his frustration.

"Nothing's ever easy in a keirin and there's a lot that goes wrong, you just have to look at the semi-finals," Carlin said.

"Some of it's a lottery, some luck, some skill. You need all three to pull it off and I might have had two, but not the last one.

"Nicholas was a deserving winner on that one - he absolutely schooled me."

Carlin has another shot at clinching an elusive individual gold when he races in the sprint on Sunday. At just 25, he still has plenty left in the tank and says he "feels confident".

The Paisley rider gives the impression he'll stop at nothing to taste that elusive major victory.

Evans on podium again

Earlier on Saturday, Neah Evans claimed bronze in the 3000m individual pursuit, having broken the Commonwealth Games record in qualifying, only for New Zealand's Bryony Botha and Australia's Maeve Plouffe to go quicker again.

She went slower in the bronze ride, but still eased to victory, to ensure defending champion Katie Archibald's absence did not end Scotland's medal hopes.

The 31-year-old from Aberdeenshire is another of the Scottish cycling team's low profile, understated, consistent achievers, having only turned fully professional in 2017 after working as a vet.

An Olympic medallist in the team pursuit, Evans only trained for the individual event in the few months before the Games and has taken to it smoothly.

Evans has two events left, the scratch and points races, in which she won silver and bronze respectively, on the Gold Coast. Three medals would be a remarkable achievement.

"It's quite nice," Evans told BBC Scotland. "But people now have expectation and it's like: 'Wow just steady on, things can go wrong...'.

"There is definitely a sense of relief. I can probably relax a little bit more and just enjoy the racing that's to come."

Media caption,

Neah Evans wins bronze in 3,000m pursuit

Related topics

Related internet links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.