Commonwealth Games started me on path to major medals – Jack Carlin

Olympic medallist Jack Carlin is clear he would never have reached the heights he has were it not for the Commonwealth Games.

Carlin was part of the Great Britain squad that took team sprint silver at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, adding bronze in the individual event.

The 25-year-old Scot will go into the Commonwealth Games this weekend among the favourites for gold in both the individual sprint and the keirin, looking to upgrade the sprint silver he won in Gold Coast four years ago.

The Commonwealth Games may be an outlier on the international track cycling calendar, slightly awkwardly positioned just a couple of weeks before the European Championships in Munich, with the World Championships to follow in October, but it is not an event Carlin will ever overlook.

Although many riders in the current set-up credit the London Olympics 10 years ago with inspiring their careers, Carlin said the key event for him was the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

“In 2014 I was a spectator in the stands and I think that’s what sparked my true passion for the sport,” Carlin told the PA news agency. “Watching my fellow Scots racing in front of a home crowd, I thought to myself, ‘That’s what I want to do one day, to be on the other side of the fence’.

“Representing Scotland only happens once every four years. It’s quite a privilege to be able to put the Saltire on and race under a blue banner. It’s in between major races with the Euros and Worlds coming up, but that doesn’t take away from the fact you want to do your country proud.”

The Glasgow Games brought top-class facilities to Scotland, most obviously the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Newbank, without which Carlin said he would never have had the opportunity to reach the top.

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