GOLDEN GLASGOW: Carmarthen’s Finucane makes history with third Commonwealth gold

Wales enjoyed another outstanding day at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome as Emma Finucane made Commonwealth Games history with a third gold medal.

The Carmarthen rider continued her remarkable Glasgow campaign by claiming gold in the women’s 1000m time trial, becoming the first Welsh woman to win three gold medals at a single Commonwealth Games.

Already a double Commonwealth champion after victories in the team sprint and individual sprint, Finucane returned to the track looking to complete a historic hat-trick.

The world champion produced another blistering ride to top the standings and secure her third title of the Games, setting a Commonwealth Games record of one minute 5.285 seconds.

That surpasses Kirsty Wade’s long-standing Welsh record of two gold medals at a single Games, set in Edinburgh in 1986.

Speaking afterwards, Finucane said she had not travelled north expecting anything like this.

“I didn’t think I’d get one gold medal to be honest,” she told reporters. “I came here with a dream and I feel like I’m living an absolute movie.”

The medal ceremonies have been the part that lands hardest. “Every time I go up there and sing the anthem I’m just really trying to soak it in,” she said.

“My family are right in front of me and these moments are why I ride my bike.”

It is a considerable turnaround from Birmingham four years ago, when a 19-year-old Finucane left with two bronze medals, in the sprint and the team sprint.

Since then have come a world sprint title, three Olympic medals in Paris, and a world record over the flying 200m set in Turkey in February.

The 23-year-old is not finished in Glasgow either. She rides the keirin on the final day of the Games, with a fourth gold still in play.

“Anything’s a bonus now,” she said. “I’ve got my three gold medals, I’m going to go into it and leave everything behind on the track, get stuck in and what will be will be.”

There was a second Carmarthenshire medal on the same night, with Jess Roberts taking silver in the women’s 25km points race.

Roberts finished on 52 points behind team-mate Anna Morris, who added the points race title to her individual pursuit gold with 66. The third Welsh rider, Carys Lloyd, did not finish.

Finucane and Roberts were welcomed home together by pupils at their former schools after the Paris Olympics in November 2024, when Carmarthen Leisure Centre hosted the celebration.

Both were named in the 19-rider Welsh cycling squad for Glasgow announced in June, a squad that also included riders from Gorseinon and Llandysul.

Finucane’s success has already changed things at home. She opened a women-only health and wellbeing centre in Carmarthen last summer, in the town whose velodrome, built in Carmarthen Park in 1900, remains one of the oldest in Britain.

James Ball and Matthew Rotherham took a second silver of the Games for Wales in the men’s tandem B sprint on the same evening.

Whatever happens in the keirin, Finucane leaves Glasgow with a place in Welsh sporting history. “I absolutely love what I do,” she said, “so I just want to go out there and ride my bike and enjoy every moment.”

Author

Richard Bond

Swansea-based sports journalist.
Twitter: @RichBond00
Email: RichardBond@swanseabaynews.com