Glasgow: Felicity Wilson-Haffenden was flicking through her local newspaper in Tasmania in 2021 when she saw an advertisement for a cycling talent search.

Bored at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, she thought, why not show up and give it a crack?

Five years on, Wilson-Haffenden is a Commonwealth Games champion after motoring home to win gold in the women’s team pursuit alongside Georgia Baker, Claudia Marcks and Alyssa Polites after only starting the sport in 2021.

“I don’t think I can say this too loudly because COVID probably wasn’t great for a lot of people. But for me, it changed my life,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

“I can’t be grateful for COVID, but I can be grateful for the outcome, that’s for sure.”

Wilson-Haffenden, who was a hockey player at the time, was lucky to make it at all – she had to call in a favour and delay her tryout.

“I actually couldn’t make it on the talent ID date, and called saying ‘I really want to give this a crack’,” she said.

“So they made a little allowance for me, but I just think it’s a message to all young kids, if you’re interested, give it a crack because you never know where it’ll take you.”

She now spends most of the year in Girona – a cycling town in Catalonia, in the north-east of Spain – but said it was her formative cycling years in Tasmania that turned her into a champion.

“I actually think it’s the cold mornings in Tassie that really build character – I think G [teammate Georgia Baker] will attest to it as well,” Wilson-Haffenden said.

“It’s a pretty lonely sport. There are lots of times on the bike, you’re out there 6am, freezing cold, dodging wallabies down in Tassie, and it’s not glamorous, but I think that’s what builds champions. And we’ve got two Tasmanians right here winning a gold medal. It speaks for itself.”

The Australian team’s victory continues its unbeaten run in the event at the Commonwealth Games. Since the team pursuit was introduced at the 2018 Games on the Gold Coast, Australia’s women have never lost.

The women’s pursuit was one of three gold medals Australia won at the Chris Hoy velodrome on day one of the cycling in Glasgow, along with Tara Neyland, who set a new world record on her way to gold in the women’s C4-C5 individual pursuit, and the men’s sprint team, who won without former teammate Matthew Richardson.

Richardson represented Australia until 2024, when he defected to England following the Paris Olympics. The allegiance switch was a shock to the Australian cycling team, including Leigh Hoffman, who earlier this week said Richardson “went on a holiday and never came back”.

But the Australian team of Hoffman, Ryan Elliott and Daniel James Barber managed to win without him – defeating England in the gold medal race. They didn’t, however, get the chance to race him. Richardson withdrew from the Games earlier this week after injuring himself in a crash during a world series race in Japan.

However, team officials told reporters Richardson wouldn’t have taken part in the team race anyway because he wouldn’t have arrived in Glasgow in time.

Nevertheless, the Australian team said it was nice to get a win over England.

Asked whether it was good to win without Richardson on the team, Hoffman said: “It would have been great if he stayed with Australia, but his heart was obviously never always in it. So, good riddance.”

Among Australia’s other cycling medallists were Jessica Gallagher and pilot Jacqueline Mengler-Mohr, who won silver in the women’s tandem B sprint finals after a crash in the second of their three finals races.

Tandem riding is a para cycling event where a visually impaired athlete has a pilot at the front of the bike.

The duo had a tyre failure, which caused the crash and forced them to rest before the Kiwis went on to win the final two races and clinch gold.

“When that tyre pressure literally disappears, you’re riding on carbon rims,” Mengler-Mohr explained.

“It’s like going from being on roller skates to ice skates, and just sliding and having no traction. There’s nothing we could have done.”

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