GWENT'S James Ball earned his second silver medal at the Commonwealth Games after finishing second in the in the men's blind and visually impaired (B&VI) sprint.

The Ponthir paracycling star won silver in the men's B&VI 1,000m time trial on day one in Australia and they again finished behind Scotland's Neil Fachie and Matt Rotherham on day three Down Under.

But Elinor Barker did win gold for Wales in the women's points race as Scotland's Katie Archibald and Neah Evans took silver and bronze respectively.

Barker, an Olympic team pursuit champion, had chosen not to take part in the pursuit races here and her fresher legs showed as she took a lap on the field midway through the race to vault to the top of the standings - a position she was then able to defend comfortably.

Archibald followed up her gold in the individual pursuit on Friday with a strong ride but could not match her Great Britain team-mate.

Sophie Thornhill and Helen Scott won gold for England in the women's B&VI 1000m time trial, breaking their own world record with a time of 1:04.623.

That completed a remarkable double-double as they also won Thursday's sprint in a world record time, having won both events at last month's world championships with world records there too.

South Wales Argus:

"It feels amazing, it's a really good feeling," Barker (above) said of her first Commonwealth title.

The 23-year-old's absence from the pursuit events in the first two days of competition here had been a surprise but she said it was always the plan - to the extent she did not even bring her pursuit bike to Brisbane.

That may have given her advantage in the points race but she did not feel it was decisive.

"I think it's more the fresh legs within the race," she said. "I didn't contest any of the first four sprints because I really wanted to take a lap.

"I've been studying races and watching for signs of when people are struggling a little bit. There were four or five people I was watching and when I saw those signs I was going to go."

Archibald admitted the extra racing in her own legs may have taken a toll, but said indecisive tactics in the early stages had cost her.

"In the first half of the race I really felt I didn't have it in me," she said. "I thought we (her and Evans) were that strong that we could both be on the podium so I'm proud that we've done that."

Evans, racing in her first Commonwealth Games at the age of 27, was delighted to pick up a medal.

"I knew it was going to be a big atmosphere, the Aussie crowd is always huge and there's a lot of Scotland fans here too," she said. "I'm delighted with the result."

Scotland's Jack Carlin won silver in the men's sprint as New Zealand's Sam Webster took gold.

Webster proved too strong as he won the opening two heats of the final against Carlin, who also won silver at last month's world championships in Apeldoorn.

Earlier in the day, Australia's defending champion Matthew Glaetzer suffered a shock defeat to Malaysia's Muhummad Sahrom in the 1/8 finals, having set a new Commonwealth Games record in the first round.

Sahrom, 34th in Apeldoorn, made it as far as the bronze medal race but had to settle for fourth place behind Australian Jacob Schmid.