Commonwealth Games: Charlie Tanfield's golden moment followed by silver lining for Katy Marchant

The Great Ayton rider had lost an Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth gold medal race to the team from Down Under but refused to be denied again in a raucous Glasgow.

Held over 4km, the quartet led for much of the contest to win England’s first gold medal in the velodrome.

It also marked a first Commonwealth Games gold medal at the fourth time of asking for Tanfield, part of the team pursuit squads that took home silver in both 2018 and 2022.

In the latter, they beat Australia in the semi-finals but lost to New Zealand. But here, they won it all.

“We've had a fair few ding dongs with them over the years so it feels so good to take the win,” Tanfield said.

“I remember Gold Coast against these guys in the final. We managed to beat them in Birmingham but it's incredible to beat them here.”

Australia were the heavy favourites to win again. They boasted two of the riders that won Olympic gold in this discipline in Paris two years ago, where Tanfield left with silver.

England, who were also made up of Henry Hobbs, Will Tidball and Ethan Vernon, were two seconds shy of Australia’s time in qualifying but delivered when it mattered most.

They inched out into an early lead and grew that to 0.7 seconds through 1km.

But Australia started to reel them in and by the half-way stage, had taken an ominous 0.035s lead.

But England roared back in the third kilometre to taker a 0.467s advantage as Australia weakened.

They then crossed the line 1.1s ahead at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

“We had to mix it up a bit,” Vernon added.

“We did a really good time last week in training, but we've had a bit of illness so we had to change the lineup but in the end we won the final and we've got five guys that could win the final."

Leeds’ Katy Maarchant – racing alongside Rhianna Parris-Smith and Sophie Capewell for England in the women’s Team Sprint – had to settle fol silver as Wales overcame a deficit at the halfway stage to take gold in a new Games record time of 46.760s.

​Earlier, Abi Miller missed out on a medal in her debut Commonwealth Games race but is determined to come out firing in today’s scratch event.

The York rider is the youngest Team England cycling member in Glasgow this week and was part of the women’s team pursuit squad that finished fourth on Thursday.

England were beaten by Wales in a one-sided bronze medal race, leaving Miller and Huddersfield’s Madelaine Leech – who was a reserve – empty handed.

Friday’s scratch race will see a large group of riders race over 10 kilometres and the longer distance suits the teenage racer, who won the the La Classique Morbihan on the road earlier this year.

“I have the scratch race to come and I love that, so I am determined to give it my all,” said Miller, who is waiting for her A-level results next month.

“We didn’t get the result we wanted but we can be proud of how we rode on the day. Wales are a veteran team and there is a lot for me to learn. I have never ridden in front of a crowd like that. It was incredible, it was not quite a home crowd but still but a British crowd, it always delivers for atmosphere.”

Miller is one of 251 Team England athletes in Glasgow.

She came to Glasgow determined to learn from an experienced England team. Miller enjoyed a breakout year in 2025, winning European Junior team pursuit gold in a new world junior standard, before adding Madison gold at the same competition. “I could not ask for a better team around me,” she added.

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