| Hosts: Birmingham Dates: 28 July to 8 August |
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Any Commonwealth medal should be a special moment for an athlete, but for England’s Para-cyclist Sophie Unwin and her pilot Georgia Holt, their silver meant so much more.
But just 48 hours later, they made sure they wouldn’t again go away empty-handed, winning silver in the tandem B time trial at the Lee Valley VeloPark.
“It means so much for us,” said Unwin.
She told BBC Sport: “That was exactly what we wanted to do today, and we did that ride exactly how we wanted to do it.
“We’re thrilled to be coming away with a silver.”
The pair were fined 200 Swiss francs each by cycling’s governing body, the UCI, for ‘protesting’ against the decision on Friday, borrowing team pursuit bronze medals from team-mates Laura Kenny and Josie Knight to pose for photographs on the podium.
Five teams originally entered the tandem B sprint event but only four started, and under Games rules, only gold and silver medals are to be issued in such cases.
But Unwin and Holt were displayed as bronze medal winners on the big screens inside the velodrome in London, only to be later denied access to the medal ceremony.
They protested by holding up an England flag behind the podium before being asked to move by security.
On Sunday, Unwin and Holt made it clear they thought they were racing for a bronze medal on Friday.
“Had we known we weren’t racing for bronze we maybe would have saved the legs for today,” said Holt, who added that Unwin was “tenacious” and they had woken up as “new women” on Saturday after the upset of the night before.
They were cheered loudly before and throughout their ride on Sunday, and again when they took their place on the podium.
“It was a simple case of miscommunication and we’ve apologised to the organisers,” Unwin said. “We didn’t want to cause any upset or show disrespect to the Games or any riders, that wasn’t our intention.
“We were emotional in the moment and we just want to thank everyone in the velodrome, everyone that messaged us and Team England. They’ve given us a huge amount of support and that’s what we’ll take away.
“The moment we had with the crowd will stay with us for the rest of our lives.”