Clancy falls short in gold quest as Trott overcomes illness

The 29-year-old from Huddersfield, who is a double Olympic, five-time world and four-time European champion, was chasing a Commonwealth title in Scotland, the only accolade to have alluded him so far.

After winning silver alongside Sir Bradley Wiggins in the team pursuit on Thursday, Clancy was denied a medal in the one kilometre time trial by less than three 10ths of a second.

Sitting in the silver medal position after stopping the clock at one minute 1.439 seconds, the Yorkshireman was knocked out of the medal positions by the final two men on the track, with Scott Sutherland of Australia seting a new Games record of one minute 0.675 seconds to win the gold medal.

Clancy – who opted out of Saturday’s points race in which the Isle of Man’s Team Sky rider Pete Kennaugh won silver – then finished 11th in the scratch race last night.

England’s Laura Trott defied a kidney infection to claim gold in thrilling fashion, pipping Wales’ Elinor Barker in a photo finish to win the women’s points race. The double Olympic champion has been off colour since arriving in Glasgow, with her illness contributing to two unusally tame outings in the individual pursuit and scratch race.

But she roared back with an irrepressible ride in her final track outing of the Games, clinching top spot on the podium with a brilliant sprint in the last of 10 scoring laps.

Slow-motion replays were needed to confirm she had edged in front of her Team GB colleague in the race for the line, the duo finishing level on 37 points and only separated by the tiny margin Trott found in the final second.

Barker, at 19 a two-time team pursuit world champion, won three sprints to Trott’s two, but the latter’s consistency won the day as she finished in the points on all but four occasions.

Scotland’s Katie Archibald was involved in a dramatic finish of her own, winning that final sprint to claim bronze ahead of Australian world champion Amy Cure.

But Trott was the star of the show, having fought off not only the challenge of her British team-mates but also the worst preparation imaginable.

“I’ve had such a bad week of it with the kidney infection, I was devastated,” she said.

“It really set me back and knocked my morale a bit. I hardly ate anything for two days, I’ve been living off porridge and I don’t like porridge.

“To come away from all that and win is just unbelievable

“With my parents here watching me, I’ve been worrying them sick the past couple of days when I have been ill.

“But when I woke up this morning, I was actually hungry and had a good feed, so it all paid off in the end.”

Barker also believed she had done enough.

“I thought I had won gold right until the last lap, then Laura just came around me,” she said.

England’s medal count was completed by a second bronze of the week for Jess Varnish.