Points legend Llanares takes gold

Spain's Olympic legend Joan Llanares took gold in the men's points race on Saturday while Chris Newton picked up a bronze medal for Great Britain.

Retirement-bound Llanares, the Sydney 2000 champion and Athens 2004 silver medallist, finished with 60 points - ahead of German Roger Kluge (58pts).

The top three were easily clear of the rest and, with nine laps left and one sprint, Newton and Kluge were level.

But the Briton faded with the finish in sight and ended on 56 points.

606: DEBATE
Will points racing ever see a better rider than Spanish legend Llanares?
Llanares - world champion for most of the past decade - took control over the second half of the race and could afford to thrust his arms into the sky at the finish at the Laoshan velodrome as he brough his glittering career to a perfect finish.

Llanares, Kluge and Newton all lapped the field twice over the course of the 160 laps of the track to collect significant bonuses and picked up further points in the sprints, which occur every 10th lap.

Middlesbrough-born Newton, 33, said he was delighted to win bronze after having climbed off midway through the same event in Athens four years ago.

"This more than makes up for Athens," he told BBC Sport.

"I knew he [Llanares] was one of the strongest riders. It's a game of cat and mouse and I used New Zealand rider Greg Henderson to keep in the race to start with.

"It was hard out there. I was very calm before today's race. I didn't think I was ready for it, but as soon as I pulled on a skinsuit something kicked in.

"Coming into a distance race like this, and with it being my only [individual] event, I was nervous beforehand. This means a lot.

"I've had fantastic support, from my wife and my baby girl who I've hardly seen for the last year-and-a-half."

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