Strategy pays off for proud Stewart

Dundee’s Mark Stewart won Commonwealth gold for Scotland in the men’s points race as the curtain came down on the track cycling events in Brisbane.

Stewart gained three laps on the field in the first half of the race to build a strong lead he kept to the end, finishing on 81 points.

That put him 12 clear of New Zealand’s Campbell Stewart in second, while England’s Ethan Hayter was one point further back to take bronze.

“I’m really proud,” said Stewart. “That was a lot of hard work and it’s come together nicely.

“I’m only 22 but I feel like I’ve been at this ages. There’s been a lot of good days and a lot of bad days. This is up there with the good days.

“I knew going in this week the points race was always the goal. Riding the individual pursuit and the scratch race were almost activations for today. It worked. It doesn’t often work, so I’m surprised.”

Five-time world champion Cameron Meyer had started favourite – the Australian usually does in any points race – but had to settle for fourth place as Stewart’s aggressive strategy paid off.

“I think when you ride against someone like Cam Meyer you can’t play his game,” Stewart added.

“He’s the best in the world at what he does. You don’t win however many world titles by chance, so you’ve got to take it to him and put him on the back foot. I think that’s why he keeps winning, because everyone follows him. He can follow me.”

Fellow Scot Neah Evans had earlier taken her second medal of the Games, winning silver in the women’s scratch race, while there was a bronze for Callum Skinner in the 1,000m time trial.

Katie Archibald might have been the Scot most were watching in the scratch race, but she would come home fourth as Evans was second to Australian Amy Cure, with England’s Emily Kay collecting bronze.

It was a second medal in as many days for Evans, who took bronze in Saturday’s points race.

Skinner’s bronze came in a kilo event won by Australian Matthew Glaetzer, who made up for Saturday’s shock early elimination in the sprint by taking gold in a Commonwealth Games record time of 59.340 seconds.

New Zealand’s Ed Dawkins also went inside a minute to take silver while Skinner recorded a time of 1:01.083, having shaken off the illness which kept him out of Saturday’s sprint.

Yesterday’s trio of wins left Scotland with 10 medals in all on the track, four of them gold.