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BILLINGE teenager Lauren Bate, along with Katy Marchant, claimed bronze in the women's team sprint at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

They came in behind Gold medallists Australia and second-placed New Zealand.

Lauren followed that up the day after with a fine display in the Women's track sprint.

The 18-year-old beat fellow Team England’s member Katie Marchant at the velodrome in Women’s Sprint 1/8 Final.

Lauren said: “I didn’t expect to come so far at all, but I know that I am better at racing than I am at qualifying anyway so it really nice to get out there and get more opportunities to race faster riders and to see how I can do.

“It was a genuine surprise to beat Katie, I did go in to the race thinking she was going to beat me and I think to be honest that that helped me because I didn’t expect to win, I just rode it the best that I could and that was the result.

"It was kind of funny to come across the other side of the world to race another GB rider.

“I just wanted to ride at the best I possibly could, I didn’t expect to win against someone four times faster than me, but I just wanted to get as much out of it as I could.

“Me being so young, there is still so much to learn and so much to gain so be up there at this stage is really cool but it’s good to know that there is still a lot I can learn and a lot I can gain for it.

“All the time I’ve been training with Katie I’ve been asking her loads of questions about when she raced at the Olympics, how it felt and trying to get as much from her as I could because at the end of the day it’s not every day you get to train with am Olympic medallist so you got to get as much out of it as you can.”

Lauren was eliminated in the quarter final, being pipped by Canada's Lauriane Genest.