Commonwealth Games: Four world champions in England cycling squad

Four world champions have been included in England's 27-strong cycling squad for April's Commonwealth Games.

Emily Nelson, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Hayter and Kian Emadi all won gold at the Track Cycling World Championships in the Netherlands last week.

Double Commonwealth champions Sophie Thornhill and pilot Helen Scott will defend their titles in Para-cycling.

England will compete in all four disciplines at the 2018 games, which run from 4 to 15 April in Australia.

The Gold Coast programme includes track cycling, Para-cycling (track), road cycling and mountain bike.

• England squad in full

Thornhill, who won gold in the tandem sprint and kilo events in Glasgow, said: "Winning gold medals for Team England was one of my proudest achievements.

"I'm pleased to have the opportunity to defend the titles with Helen Scott. We're currently both training hard ahead of our World Championships in Rio, and from there we aim to carry our racing form through to the Gold Coast."

The track cycling team includes 14 members of the Great Britain squad who competed at the World Championships in Apeldoorn, winning six medals.

Nelson partnered Scotland's Katie Archibald to gold in the women's madison, while Tanfield, Hayter and Emadi were joined by Ed Clancy to win the men's team pursuit.

The mountain bike racing will be contested by British Olympian Annie Last, who finished fourth in Glasgow in 2014, under-23 world champion Evie Richards and British champion Frazer Clacherty.

Hayley Simmonds, Melissa Lowther and Abigail van Twisk are amongst those selected for the women's road team alongside 2016 national champion Adam Blythe plus Ian Bibby, Harry Tanfield and Thomas Stewart in the men's race.