Brits claim three silvers on the road at Commonwealth Games

Australian and New Zealand scoop golds, reports Vern Pitt

- Vern Pitt

As Neah Evans, Anna Hederson, and Fred Wright led the home nations’ charge at the Commonwealth Games road events, all three were surprising themselves.

The trio claimed silver in the road race and time trials respectively as the nations of Australia and New Zealand proved dominant on the road.

Home riders claimed five medals, with England’s Anna Henderson winning silver in the women’s time trial and Scotland’s Neah Evans winning silver in the road race, while in the men’s time trial Fred Wright and Geraint Thomas claimed silver for England and bronze for Wales respectively while in the road race Finn Crocket claimed bronze for Scotland.

Australia won three of the four races with Grace Brown in the women’s time trial, Georgie Baker in the women’s road race, and Rohan Dennis in the men’s time trial. Aaron Gate of New Zealand won the men’s road race, adding another gold to his haul of three gold medals on the track at the Games, a record for a New Zealander.

For Evans and Wright, the results were somewhat unexpected.

Evans said: “I got two medals on the track so I knew physically I was in a good place. But I haven’t actually done a road race in three years. I knew on paper that my fitness should have transferred across, but it was an unknown quantity.”

The Aberdeenshire native said she had entered the race with “very low expectations” as she was unsure how well she would be able to position herself in the finale.