Great Britain's Neah Evans and Elinor Barker take madison gold after Kieran Reilly, Ethan Vernon triumph

Neah Evans and Elinor Barker added to Great Britain’s haul of medals at the UCI World Championships as they were crowned world madison champions. Earlier, Kieran Reilly won another gold, claiming the rainbow jersey with "a run I will remember forever" on home soil in Glasgow, while Ethan Vernon recovered from a crash to win the men's elimination race and a 19th gold for the Brits.

Neah Evans and Elinor Barker sealed gold and were crowned world madison champions with 28 points following a dramatic race at the UCI World Championships on Monday.

The British duo topped the Australian team by just three points with France completing the podium a further three adrift.

Barker had just launched an attack when a heavy crash caused the race to be neutralised with just nine of the 40 laps remaining.

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With Barker appearing exhausted, it was Evans who led the charge when the race resumed but she quickly fatigued.

It was left to Barker to make a strong finish and she managed to claim fourth place, which was enough for the gold medal.

Reflecting on the success, Evans told BBC Sport: "I remember thinking I have one sprint to go. Elinor is off the front and I have to come in and do two laps and we've won and then the gun went and it was like 'oh no, I don't know if I have nine laps left in me'. We got to the front and went hard and it worked."

Evans and Barker reflect on becoming world madison champions

Video credit: TNT Sports

Barker added: "My little boy is here. He is probably asleep but it is the first time he has been in the same building when I have won a bike race. We had to be first at worst. We just had to be up there.

"We are in a really nice position. Before Tokyo it was kind of a mess. It was impossible to put a marker down, we were trying to race through Covid. We were doing some race here and there with a small number of teams and we didn't get to race the Australians, the Americans, the Canadians and it all felt really hard to predict.

"Now we can take this confidence and hopefully put it into something good next year."

GB's Reilly becomes world BMX freestyle champion at World Championships

Video credit: TNT Sports

Earlier, there were golds for Great Britain as Kieran Reilly won the men’s elite BMX freestyle with "a run I will remember forever", Ethan Vernon recovered from a crash to claim victory in the men's elimination race, and Neil Fachie and Matthew Rotherham won in the men's B Sprint.

The 22-year-old Reilly went into the event on home soil in Glasgow as the reigning European champion and took the rainbow jersey before declaring his target of Olympic gold in Paris next year.

'A dream come true' - Reilly reflects on becoming BMX freestyle world champion

Video credit: TNT Sports

"It is a run I will remember forever,” Reilly told the BBC.

“I have this championship, but Olympic gold is always going to be the goal. I look forward to Paris."

Reilly faced an agonising wait for his triumph to be confirmed as rain delayed the action while he was top of the leaderboard.

To make matters worse, Olympic champion Logan Martin and defending world champion Rimu Nakamura were yet to have their final run.

But Reilly’s second run of 95.80 proved enough to hold off Australia’s Martin, who finished second with 95.30, while Nakamura of Japan only mustered enough for a fourth-place finish with 91.87.

Nick Bruce of the United States took bronze with 93.90, while Britain’s Jude Jones was sixth with 90.10, behind Croatian Marin Rantes on 90.64.

“It has been a stressful half hour and it hasn’t hit me yet,” Reilly added.

“I was trying to impress, and I got to a point when it was guaranteed a medal, but the difference to get a medal and the jersey is huge.

"It feels like a dream come true; I cannot believe it. For me it’s rare you come off a course and you feel 100% proud, it means a lot when you finish.”

Vernon soon followed suit by taking the rainbow jersey in the men's elimination race in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

The 22-year-old finished ahead of Canada's Dylan Bibic and Elia Viviani of Italy despite crashing heavily with Matthijs Buchli to neutralise the race early on.

He recovered to stay in contention, before storming past Bibic in the first corner of the final lap and powering clear to create such a large gap that he had time to celebrate with the crowd before crossing the line.

"I can't believe it. When I crashed I didn’t really know the rules, so I just got back on and sprinted back on," Vernon said.

Vernon recovers from crash to wins men's elimination race

Video credit: TNT Sports

"I didn't want to lose and I had good legs so it could not end it there.

"This week has been a bit depressing for us, the TP didn’t go so well and we put everything into that so it was a big setback. So to win in a bunch race that wasn't the main target is quite special."

Meanwhile, Fachie and Rotherham had wrapped up their victory in their first and second race, meaning a third wasn't necessary.

"First two world titles as a dad - and it does make it extra special," Fachie told the BBC.

"When you are up racing side by side and you are going for gold you hear that crowd roar, it is buzzing."

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