Darren Rafferty has put in a great ride for Northern Ireland in the elite men's TT at the Commonwealth Games; the first-year U23 rider finishing in 8th place not too far off some of the stars of the World Tour.
The gold medal was won by Australia's Rohan Dennis, with Fred Wright of England in 2nd place at 26 seconds in the 36km TT. Geraint Thomas of Wales took the bronze, 28 seconds down in Wolverhampton.
Thomas suffered a crash shortly after the start - when he hit he crowd control barriers after exiting a corner. That slowed him down and almost certainly cost him the gold medal.
Rafferty was 8th at 2:50 and can be very happy with that performance in the 54-rider field. Northern Ireland only fielded one rider in the test, with Marcus Christie, who was 7th four year ago, overlook for selection.
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To put Rafferty's ride in the context, he was just six seconds off Owain Doull (Wales) in 7th and was 17 seconds off John Archibald (Scotland) in 6th place. Luke Plapp, the 21-year-old Australian road race champion, was just three places ahead of Rafferty and 24 seconds faster.
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In the women's TT earlier in the day, Northern Ireland's Joanne Patterson - the former Irish national TT champion - finished 19th of the 31-rider field. Patterson was 4:38 down on gold medal winner Grace Brown of Australia.
Brown took the title by 34 seconds over silver medal winner Anna Henderson of England. Georgia Williams of New Zealand won the bronze medal at 1:20. Northern Ireland field just one rider in the women's TT.
