UCI Track Cycling World Championships: Jon Dibben wins gold in points race as British medal rush continues

Jon Dibben marked his UCI Track Cycling World Championships debut with a maiden gold medal in the men's points race with a stunning ride from start to finish in London. Dibben was in medal contention for long periods of the race but responded to Benjamin Thomas' late break to take the final race and draw level with Andreas Graf on 48 points to take the title.

Britain enjoyed a successful third day as they added three more medals to their tally after the women's team pursuit and Andy Tennant took bronze. The British quartet, led by scratch race world champion Laura Trott, beat New Zealand with a fine performance while Tennant prevailed against fellow-countryman Owain Doull in the men's individual pursuit.

"I came here for the team pursuit and yesterday we were one place down and heads were down," said Dibben, who had already claimed silver as part of the individual pursuit team, said. "I road it like an omnium points race, got an early lap like no-one was watching me and for about 100 laps I was on the limit, I had nothing. Last 20 laps everyone else just died off and I knew what I had to do on the last sprint."

GB's women were out of gold medal contention after qualifying fifth fastest on Thursday [3 March] following a poor display which saw the team split in the final kilometre. However, the team of Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker and Ciara Horne produced a British record to reach the bronze medal race before they defeated their Kiwi opponents to salvage some respectability from an otherwise disappointing showing.

"After yesterday we were a bit disappointed with how we were riding but we've come back fighting," said Trott, who won her second medal of the championships. "We road so well as a team and the performance we should have done yesterday, was there today.

"It proved people well and proved that we do gel well as a team and that was the performance. Today we spread the effort on what people had evenly and that is the way it worked and it paid off. In the first round I had so much gas but I guess that was killing other people." In the gold medal race, United States won gold from silver medallists Canada.

In the all-British fight for bronze in the individual pursuit Tennant went into the clash with 22-year-old Doull as the underdog. But the former world champion used his experience and led throughout before winning by 0.2 seconds.

"That is the icing on the cake for me at the world championships," the Wolverhampton-born rider said. "Up in Manchester I was struggling. I did a decent ride in the semi-final so I was chuffed with that. If you'd asked me three weeks ago if I had go this [bronze] I certainly would be betting against myself." Italy Filippo Ganna won gold after a stunning comeback in the final there laps to overcome German Domenic Weinstein.

Elsewhere, Mark Cavendish kept his hope of competing on the track at the Rio Olympics alive after leaping up to seventh at the half-way point in the omnium competition. The Isle of Man rider finished second in the elimination race after a sixth and 13th place finish in the points race and individual pursuit respectively to end the day on 87 points. Colombia's Fernando Gaviria and Elia Viviani share the lead on 102.