Report: Medal success for Welsh cyclists at the
Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games 2011
Four days of competition at the Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games 2011 have now come to a close, but what a successful Games it was for Team Wales and our own Welsh cyclists.
The final medal table shows Team Wales sitting in 5th position with 5 gold, 11 silver and 10 bronze medals, with the Team Wales cyclists picking up 6 of those medals; 3 silver and 3 bronze. This led to Wales finishing 3rd in the cycling competition. Welsh Cycling Performance Team Manager, Matt Cosgrove and Head Coach Darren Tudor also accompanied the team to the Isle of Man to offer support and assistance to the cyclists, as well as measure the development of Team Wales.
The opening ceremony took place on Thursday evening, with competing commonwealth nations parading athletes and officials in the Bowl Stadium at the National Sports Centre, Douglas. The Earl of Wessex addressed the crowd at the opening ceremony thanking the Isle of Man for hosting the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Games. Owain Doull, carried the flag for Team Wales, a proud moment for the Welsh cyclist.
Cycling competition began on Friday evening with the Men’s and Women’s Time Trials along the Douglas Promenade. Elinor Barker and Amy Roberts put in a great performance in the first event. Elinor collected a bronze medal with a time of 10m 34s and Amy came in 4th, 3 seconds behind Elinor with 10m 37s. They also picked up a silver medal in the Women’s Team Trial with a combined time of 21m 11s, just 13 seconds off gold medallists, England. Owain Doull and Dan Pearson were up next. Owain missed out on a podium finish, by just two tenths of a second as he came in 4th at 9m 17s. Team mate Dan Pearson completed the time trial in 10m 14s finishing 21st, with their combined times earning them 4th place in the Men’s Team Time Trial.
England's Hannah Barnes (centre) celebrates winning gold. Pictured left is Australia's Jess Allen, while Wales' Ellnor Barker is on the right.
Road RaceSaturday's main event was the Road Race, with Women completing a 45km course at the TT Grandstand, and men completing a 82.5km course in the afternoon. The women began with a field of 18 riders from across the commonwealth nations, but it was a hard day of racing on the wet roads in the Isle of Man. Elinor Barker missed out on her second individual medal, coming in 5th place with Amy Roberts coming in 2 seconds behind her to take 9th place. It was a race dominated by England and Australia, but together Elinor and Amy earned Wales another medal, claiming bronze in the Women's Team Road Race. The Men's competition got underway in the afternoon, with Owain Doull breaking away early on to lead the race. By the end of lap 3, there was a breakaway of 6 riders gaining 1m 30s on the main group. Owain stayed up front with a close podium finish where he earned a silver medal for Team Wales. Dan Pearson, Junior British Road Race Champion came in 12th in a field of 45 riders and earned a Men's Team Road Race bronze medal.
Owain was pleased with his medal, after narrowly missing out at the Time Trials: "It's really good to be a medallist; I obviously missed out on the time trial the day before by two tenths of a second for a medal so I'm really happy. I was really annoyed with myself, if you lose by 2 seconds you can't do much about it but if you lose by two tenths you can always find it somewhere. I was just annoyed with myself more than anything but then really motivated to get a result in the road race."
Men's Road Race Podium - From left, Jack Beckinsale (silver), Calen Ewan (gold), and Wales' Owain Doull (bronze).
The final event took place on Sunday afternoon with Criterium in Douglas. The women again performed well throughout the race. Elinor Barker tried increasingly to break away from England's Hannah Barnes, but couldn't quite get the golden podium finish. She picked up her second individual medal, taking silver in the Women's Criterium. Team mate Amy Roberts missed out on bronze by just one second settling for 4th place, above the Australians. The Men's Criterium began later because of the poor weather conditions on the Isle of Man. The race also didn't pass without incident and there was a crash at the bottom of Broadway, where involved riders were entitled to a lap out. England and Wales launched an attack, but it wasn't enough for Wales to get their final cycling medal. Owain Doull finished in 4th just one second on 3rd place Australian Jack Beckinsale. Team mate Dan Pearson came in 12th.
All smiles for England's Hannah Barnes (centre) after her win in the criterium. Also pictured are Wales' silver medallist Elinor Barker (left) and bronze medallist Lucy Garner (right).
England's Jon Dibben leads Wales' Owain Doull in the men's criterium.
Matt Cosgrove, Performance Team Manager commented on the team performance, "The team performed very well over the course of the event. There were some great performances, important lessons learnt and valuable experience gained. It was an important event in the riders' development. They all did Welsh Cycling and Team Wales proud."
The Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games was a fantastic multisport event that gave all the young athletes a chance to compete with competitors from across the commonwealth, many of whom will progress to take part in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.
Owain has competed at the UK School Games in previous years but explains the Commonwealth Youth Games goes further, "I've done things like the UK School Games before and that was my first multi-sport event and this is just another whole step up again. The atmosphere, especially in the Wales hotel, is really good. We get back and think you've done well and you find out someone from one of the other sports have done a lot better but it's all really good!"
Full event results are available at www.cyg2011results.com
Preview: Team Wales at the Commonwealth Youth Games, Isle of Man
Posted: 08/09/11
This week sees the fourth Commonwealth Youth Games arrive on the Isle of Man. A team of 4 riders will represent Wales in cycling at the Commonwealth Youth Games on 7th - 12th September 2011. The team will consist of junior cyclists Owain Doull, Daniel Pearson, Elinor Barker and Amy Roberts. They join 32 Team Wales athletes who will compete in 6 different sports during the event. Wales are just one of 69 countries from around the Commonwealth attending the games with over 1,000 athletes competing in 7 different sports.
Owain, Elinor and Amy have all been selected in the long-list to ride for Team GB at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Copenhagen later this month, whilst Daniel Pearson is the current Welsh and National Junior Road Race Champion.
The first event the team will compete in is the Time Trial on Friday evening. The 7.21km route will take the riders along the Promenade in Douglas. Saturday is the Road Race event at the TT Grandstand with the start on Glencrutchery Road. Women set off at 10:15am, to complete 45km, 6 laps, and the Men compete in the afternoon with an 82.5km distance, 11 laps. The final cycling event takes place on Sunday afternoon. The Women's Criterium begins at 14:15 with 30 minutes plus 5 laps of the half mile route starting on the Promenade. The Men's Criterium starts at 15:15 with 50 minutes plus 5 laps of the same route.
The Opening Ceremony will be streamed live from the Isle of Man's National Sports Stadium on the BBC Isle of Man website on Thursday 8th September at 7:15pm.
You can follow Welsh Cycling on Twitter and find us on Facebook where we will post all the cycling results as they happen.
Find out more about the Isle of Man Commonwealth Youth Games here www.cyg2011.com
