Elinor Barker blasted her way to Britain’s first gold medal of the World Track Championships in Pruszkow, Poland.

Wales’ Olympic champion triumphed in a dramatic finale to the women’s scratch race which saw a crash on the penultimate lap.

Barker revealed she almost quit cycling last year but had rediscovered her love for the sport.

“It’s a massive surprise,” Barker said. “It feels really bizarre. I came really close to quitting completely about six months ago. I’d kind of fallen out of love with it so just to get here felt like such an achievement itself.

“I fell out of love with it for a number of factors, but I’ve got it back now. I owe a huge amount to our new psychologist who we got around October time. He managed to keep me going and feeling at my best again.”

The 24-year-old had made her move just over two laps from the finish and held off the reigning champion, Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands.

“That was always my plan,” Barker said of the late surge. “I wanted to stay out of the carnage.

“It’s always a bit sketchy. It’s the first race of the week and everyone’s fresh, everyone wants a sprint but no-one wants to take it on.

“I wanted to stay out of the way a little bit. For safety but also to save the legs because I’ve got the team pursuit tomorrow and this was always the secondary event.”

Barker’s victory was her fourth world title after gold in the team pursuit in 2013 and 2014 and in the points race in Hong Kong two years ago.

Belgium’s Jolien D’Hoore took third place.

Earlier in the day, Barker joined Katie Archibald, Laura Kenny and Ellie Dickinson to set the second-fastest time in qualifying for the team pursuit, stopping the clock at 4 minutes 15.618 seconds, leaving them 0.7 seconds behind Australia’s pace.