Conor White dug into his reserves to go the full distance in a sapping 40km points race final at the Commonwealth Games, which he described as all about “survival”.

Against some the world’s best track cyclists he was unable to collect any points from the 16 sprints in the race, and ended with a minus 20 score after being lapped.

Two riders retired mid-race, but White stuck to the task to finish sixteenth at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow.

His achievement was reaching the final. He did so earlier in the morning by winning the final sprint of his heat to chalk up a total of 11 points.

Reflecting on the final, he said: “I went into that just trying to hold on and hope to finish, so that’s what I did. I wasn’t even trying to go for points because this calibre of field is ridiculous.

“Just to finish the race, I’m pretty happy.”

The race was won by Matthew Bostock, of the Isle of Man, followed by Australia’s Oliver Bleddyn and New Zealand’s George Jackson.

White was exhausted after completing his third event, and fourth race, in three days. On Friday he competed in the 4,000m individual pursuit heats, and the following day was in the 10km scratch race heats.

It is still early days for him as a track cyclist.

“I only started racing track 11 months ago, so it's pretty new still. I'm happy to get that result,” he said.

He appreciated the opportunity to pick up experience at the Games and is now planning to take a little rest and recuperation with a break in Wales before preparing for a few more races with his team in England.