JACK Carlin is in mid-flitting when The Herald calls. From the flat near the Manchester Velodrome which he used to share with England’s Joe Truman, he is moving to a bigger place “a 20-minute bike ride away” with both Truman and his fellow Scot Mark Stewart.

It is to be hoped this new abode has a generous mantlepiece, because Carlin – not to mention his selection of housemates – is fast becoming one of the hottest properties in track cycling.

In one of the cardboard boxes strewn around the place, there are the two World Championship silver medals the 20-year-old from Paisley brought back from Apeldoorn in the Netherlands at the weekend. Truman has one of them too, also part of a silver medal winning GB team sprint, while Stewart brought back his first piece of silverware at world level – the 22-year-old from Dundee claimed a fine bronze in the points race.

“Since I came home everything has been chucked into bags and boxes,” Carlin told Herald Sport. “I’ve not even unpacked yet but it will be good to have two Scots to one. That means we can outvote him. And if there is a Scotland game and an England game on at the same time, I know which one we will be watching!”

Carlin’s career is fairly gathering pace considering his path into the sport only came about when he fractured both ankles as a youngster mucking about on a public park in Paisley, the accident leaving him with an ungainly running style and an affinity for riding on the static bike in his rehab.

While his development as a lead-out man in the team sprint has been established by a couple of storming World Cup showings, Sir Chris Hoy for one spoke of his amazement this week at the 20-year-old making it all the way to a world final in the individual sprint, where he ultimately went down to Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer.

It seems a pretty fair bet that this rivalry will be renewed on the contours of the Anna Meares Velodrome next month, perhaps also in the Keirin where Carlin ultimately finished fifth and Glaetzer failed to qualify but will be one of the favourites on home soil.

Already a European championship silver medallist from 2016, last weekend was Carlin’s coming out party on the world stage – but enough competitive juices are flowing for him to be ever so slightly gutted about the fact the medals weren’t gold.

“Everyone has been really encouraging and there have been a lot of supportive comments which has been really nice to see,” said Carlin.

“When I went into the competition

I wasn’t expecting the result that I got. I was hoping for top five at best [in the individual sprint] which would have been a great result. So I feel like I pretty much did the best I could, but you always want that little bit more. Within cycling, to get a rainbow jersey would have been huge.

“My dad was supposed to come out to watch me, but because of the Beast from the East he didn’t manage to get out,” he added. “But he probably didn’t care that much. It meant he was in a nice warm flat with a beer in his hand!”

Second place was also a decent return considering Carlin was only fifth fastest in terms of qualifying times before the cat-and-mouse match sprint stage of the event gets under way.

“A lot of guys are really fast these days, so it comes down a lot more to tactics, which is why I think I did as well as I did,” said Carlin. “I have always been a bit slower than not even the world class riders, but the other British riders too. So I need to use what tactics I can use to get the advantage.”

Cycling is one of the last to fully declare its hand for the Gold Coast, with a final media day set for March 20, but considering Scotland now has a World Championship runner-up in the individual sprint and an Olympic runner-up in the same event in Callum Skinner to call upon, it seems rather a shame that the odds now seem against Team Scotland entering a three-man group for the Team Sprint, an event in which the likes of Hoy, Craig MacLean and Ross Edgar claimed gold in Melbourne back in 2006.

“It isn’t official,” said Carlin, who is 100% for the individual sprint and Keirin. “But I believe that might be the case. I’m not sure we have a competitive enough team to put into that.

“All of us individually who could go into the team sprint might benefit from resting up for the individual events which we might all do really well in. It just saves your legs, not having another day of racing in them.

“But the Commies will definitely be an easier field, the World Champs is the world’s best riders and everyone goes in in the best form.

“Most likely I will see Matthew Glaetzer again at the Commonwealths at some point, there is a fair chance of that,” he added. “At the moment he [Glaetzer] is definitely the guy to beat but being World Champion you are always going to have that on your back – for the sprint and the Keirin too. Although he didn’t even make it to the final in the Keirin at the world champs he is very, very strong and when he gets it right, he gets it right.

“The New Zealanders, the Australians, the English and the Welsh will all bring very strong teams to the Commonwealths. But from a Scotland perspective there is Katie [Archibald], Callum, Mark and others too, so it is all to play for.”