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Day Two: Track Cycling - Draper scores a PB

Fri, 06 Apr 2018

In track cycling at the Anna Meares Velodrome, The Island’s Matthew Draper was on the track against Northern Ireland’s Marcus Christie in the 4km Individual pursuit.

Draper put in a strong performance shaving 9 seconds of his personal best and was ahead of Christie for until around 3km when Christie took the lead.

Draper finished in a time of 4mins 38.6 seconds and ranks him 22nd in the event.

After the race he told Energy FM: "It was very hard, the heat was incredible, I felt good until the last couple of laps then I was hanging on. The whole team have been fantastic. I gave everything I had. Now I’m going to rest and rehydrate for tomorrow."

"I was pretty happy. I beat my personal best by eight seconds so that was really good."

On the difference between training in the Isle of Man and competing at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games: "I've got no velodrome back home in the Isle of Man so I've done a lot of time-trial training with the motorbikes. It was so special to come out here. The atmosphere is insane.

"I've got my family here in the grandstands so that is really special to have them cheering me on."

On his future: "I'm only 19 and this is my first Games so it's great to do it somewhere like the Gold Coast in Australia. It makes it so special."

On representing the Isle of Man at the English Schools Cross Country Championships in 2017: "Cross country (running) was something I was always good at but I've never enjoyed it that much.

"It is one of those things that sort of just happened. In another life I could've been a cross-country runner, but I wouldn't change it for the world."

The fastest of the event was England’s Charlie Tanfield who set a new Games Record with a time of 4min 11.455sec. The top four will go through to the Semi Finals tonight with the top two competing for Gold and the second two for Bronze.

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Photos

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