Jon Dibben wins World Championship gold in points race
By Matt Westby
Last Updated: 05/03/16 12:41pm
Great Britain’s Jon Dibben produced a sensational late surge to win gold in the men’s points race at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London.
The 22-year-old trailed leader Andreas Graf by two points going into the last of the race's 16 sprints but then launched a searing attack on the penultimate lap and crossed the line first to take the maximum five points of offer.
Graf, of Austria, finished second to claim three points, leaving both riders level on final totals of 48, but Dibben was awarded the gold due to the fact he was first to finish.
He said: "It feels unbelievable. Wearing the rainbow jersey is massive.
"I knew what I had to do 14 or 15 laps out. The Austrian was on my wheel and I knew I had to beat him. I didn't think about anything else. I was pretty confident in my sprint and I just had to hold my nerve.
"In the last 30 laps I was just waiting for sprints and in the last six or seven laps I was just trying to gulp in the air, and the crowd gave me a bit of a boost."
Dibben put himself in contention by lapping the field and consequently gaining 20 points early in the race and although he later dropped to fourth, he stayed in the hunt and ultimately walked away with the first world title of his career.
He added: "Any medal would have been a massive result, so to get the gold medal and the world champion's jersey is amazing."
The medal was Dibben's second of the World Championships after he won silver in the team pursuit on Thursday.
