ANNIE led from first to Last on her way to Commonwealth gold in the women’s cross-country mountain biking in Gold Coast.

The 27-year-old Annie Last could only managed fourth in Glasgow four years ago, but on Thursday she and compatriot Evie Richards led from the off on their way to an English one-two, the first time England’s women have ever won a Commonwealth medal in this event.

Hitting the front at the very first corner, Last and Richards, 21, never looked back over the six-lap race.

The Sheffield rider then made her move to drop Richards early on the third lap, and eventually took victory by 48 seconds, with Richards a further minute and a half clear of Canada’s Haley Smith in bronze.


And Last revealed that it had been a deliberate tactic to get to the front early in a bid to avoid any unfortunate mishaps on the course in Nerang.

She said: “I’m really happy with the race. For me it went to plan. I had a smooth race, I didn’t make too many big mistakes and I managed to position correctly so that I was able to get it all out there and pace it well. I’m really happy and it’s great to have Evie second and pushing the race. 

“There’s quite a bit of single track on this course so I wanted to be in a position where I was near the front at least. There’s the potential that if you’re gunning too far back, someone in front of you could have messed up and you could have lost kind of contention with the front so I wanted to make sure I was near the front. 

“I stayed up there and it means you can ride your race. There’s quite a few little steep ups and steep downs, so if someone in front of you makes a mistake you’re stuck on your bike tackling up it. So I wanted to make sure I had a clean track.”

Later in the day Frazer Clacherty took fifth in the men’s event which was won in dramatic fashion by New Zealand’s Sam Gaze.

The 22-year-old suffered a puncture on the final lap but fought back to take victory ahead of compatriot and defending champion Anton Cooper.

Clacherty was a little further back but finished strongly to take fifth – his ambition coming into the competition.

He said: “I’m pleased with that. My aim was top five and I finished fifth so I’m pretty happy.

“I got caught behind someone at the start and those guys up in front went so I had to race my own race. I rode in fifth so I’m pretty pleased.”

npower is the Official Partner of Team England and is giving our athletes the power of support by recording a brand new version of their anthem, Jerusalem. To listen to the track visit npower.com/teamengland

Ealing Times: