Dawkins’ bet with Aussie pays off

A bet with an Australian coach led to Eddie Dawkins claiming an unexpected silver medal at the Commonwealth Games.

As an out-and-out sprinter, Dawkins hasn’t ridden a 1000-metre time trial in years, but was never one to back down from a challenge.

‘‘The last time I did a kilo at a world champs was 2013 and I did one at nationals a couple of years ago against Zac Williams and he beat me. It was only on a bet really,’’ he said of the reason for lining up in the race at the Anna Meares Velodrome on Sunday night.

‘‘Nick Flyger, the head of the Aussie programme, came up to me at Oceanias and goes ‘I dare you to ride the kilo at the Comm Games’. And I was like ‘all right, I’ll do that’’.

‘‘He didn’t take me seriously and I didn’t do any training for it, I just did my regular stuff and then chucked some aero bars on, had a couple of cracks on it and then came out there.’’

Once out there, he was able to fly around the track in 59.928sec – just the fourth man to go under 60sec for the 1000m at sea level.

He broke the Commonwealth Games record with the ride, but one of the other three men to break the minute barrier was Australian Matthew Glaetzer, who was last out on Sunday and blew the field away with a time of 59.340sec. It was a world record for the 1000m at sea level.

Glaezter was out to make amends for a shock exit from the sprint on Saturday night, when he lost at the 1/8 final stage to littleknown Malaysian Mohammad Sahrom.

Dawkins could only watch on from the middle of the track as Glaetzer won gold. He shook his head as the Australian went under his time in the first lap, then held his hands to his head as his adversary continued to beat his time before finally breaking into applause with the rest of the velodrome when Glaetzer completed his ride.

‘‘He’s a phenomenal rider. He came out today with all the fury he could muster and the only way to be happy with a silver medal is to be beaten by a world record, so hats off to him,’’ Dawkins said.

‘‘I’m super stoked about it [going sub-60], it’s a pretty exclusive club. There are only four of us who have gone under it at sea level. There is a slew that have gone under it at altitude, with the tracks the way they are it’s a dime a dozen.

‘‘To really do it at sea level has been a goal of mine. Even though I haven’t trained for it and it wasn’t the Olympics, I didn’t want to put any stock in it, but it was good to measure the mettle and see where I am against the rest of the world.’’