England’s Sophie Thornhill and pilot Helen Scott have claimed gold in the women’s blind and visually impaired sprint at the Commonwealth Games setting a new world record at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Defending champion Thornhill won two of the three races to beat Australia’s Jessica Gallagher and Madison Janssen.
The pair capped a memorable penultimate UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships evening as the Great Britain Cycling Team picked up three gold medals and six in all, smashing into double figures.
Nearly four years had passed since Thornhill set the women’s B 1km time trial world record with Rachel James – now the British star has the honour of beating both hers and the world’s best.
With Scott alongside her this time the pair set out with only gold on their minds, hitting the first 250m checkpoint with just 20.222 seconds on the clock.
From there they went from strength to strength, reaching 750m in less than 50 seconds before bringing the curtain down on their world-record ride in a time of 1:05.079.
At speeds in excess of 55km/h, more than two seconds separated the Brits from Jessica Gallagher and Madison Jenssen in second while bronze went to Griet Hoet and Anneleen Monsieur.
For Thornhill this was just another step in her esteemed career on the Rio track where she won Paralympic gold, backing up the World Championship honours she picked up in 2017, 2015 and 2014.
