How 2022 Commonwealth Games propelled Anna Morris to top level

That experience in Birmingham was Morris’s first major taste of international competition.

“Without the platform Welsh Cycling was able to provide me, I would have really struggled to have been able to gain any international racing experience and that level of coaching and support on my own. So it would have been really hard to have bridged that gap to the Great Britain cycling team.”

However, she did just that, racing at the European Championships that same year and earning a contract with the national federation.

Since then, Morris has gone from strength to strength. She won team pursuit gold with Great Britain at last year’s world championships and helped the team defend that title this year, adding an Olympic debut and bronze medal in Paris along the way.

But an individual pursuit world title earlier this month in Denmark, her first as a solo rider, was the culmination of a lot of hard work in a very short space of time – and a vindication of her decision to put her career in medicine on hold.

“The opportunities are still there, so I’m keen to keep exploring,” she told the BBC.