England’s Laura Kenny wins a stunning Commonwealth Games gold, a day after thinking it would be her final race amid a “serious confidence crisis”.
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On the Lee Valley VeloPark track where she made her name at the 2012 Olympics, Kenny rounded Scotland’s Neah Evans on the final bend and stormed to the line amid deafening roars from the crowd.
New Zealand’s Michaela Drummond was second while Canada’s Maggie Coles-Lyster won the bronze.
Evans finished in an agonising fourth.
“I can’t believe it honestly, I said to Jase [Jason Kenny – her husband] ‘I think this is going to be my last race’,” Kenny told BBC Sport.
“I watched Adam Peaty completely reflect in his interview and I thought that is me all over.
“I’ve lost the spark, training doesn’t come that easy. Every day I’m like ‘here we go again’. I’ve been there three Olympic cycles now. To keep picking yourself up after this whole year has been a nightmare. I have absolutely just lost motivation.
“Then last night I was messaging my new coach Len and I was like ‘no, I’m not giving up, I have one more roll of the dice please just help me’. It could not have been better set up if I tried.”
Five-time Olympic champion Kenny’s victory marks a first track cycling gold medal for England at the Birmingham Games.
The 30-year-old won bronze in the team pursuit earlier in the Games but was off the pace in Sunday’s points race, finishing 13th.
Her victory comes just months after she suffered a miscarriage, followed by an ectopic pregnancy.
“To cross the line here in London I could not ask for anything more,” Kenny added.
“Sunday left a pretty bad taste to be honest. I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind.
“You see Matt Walls crash like that and it really makes you think ‘what am I doing?’. I have been so lucky my whole career I have had one broken shoulder and one broken arm.
“You see something like that… I was having a serious confidence crisis. I just didn’t want to be on the track and when that happens I race badly and I don’t get a result. And that’s what happened. Whereas today I was so fired up. I kept saying to myself in the toilet, ‘I can do this’.
“Some man on the start line said ‘you’ve got this Laura’ and I felt like turning round to him and saying ‘yes I have’. I was like a completely different bike rider.”
More to follow.