Australia edge out Britain in team pursuit thriller after Lavreysen sets sprint record
Australia won a thrilling men's team pursuit final against Britain at the National Velodrome on Wednesday to claim their first Olympic gold medal in the iconic track event since 2004.
The teams were neck-and-neck throughout the 16-lap duel with Australians Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O'Brien always fractionally ahead.
It was still in the balance as the bell rang for the final lap but calamity struck Britain as Charlie Tanfield and Ethan Hayter clipped wheels, sending them out of formation to allow Australia to gain sweet revenge for past defeats.
They had lost the 2012 and 2016 finals to Britain but arrived in Paris with a formidable quartet and broke the world record when knocking out Italy in the first round.
"I'm just so proud of the team I'm a part of," O'Brien told reporters.
"It's an absolute honour to share the track with those guys, and even more so when you come away with gold.
"I have so much respect for that (British) team and those guys, so hats off to them for putting on a good show."
Italy, the champions from Tokyo, easily beat Denmark to take the bronze medal.
For Britain, it was a case of so near yet so far as they failed to reclaim the title in the event they once dominated.
"We were so close and I could see it. It was nearly five laps at the end and I just really gave too much, and my whole body went weak and I really struggled to hold myself on the bike in the end," Hayter said.
"Sorry to the guys but I think we gave everything and we can be proud of that silver medal."
The United States won the gold medal in the Olympic track cycling women's team pursuit for the first time as they beat New Zealand in the final on Wednesday.
Britain defeated Italy to take the bronze medal.
For American Kristen Faulkner it was her second gold medal of the Games after she won the women's road race.
Faulkner and team mates Jennifer Valente, Lily Williams and former road time trial world champion Chloe Dygert built up a healthy lead and victory looked a formality.
They struggled to stay together in the final laps, however, and there were anxious moments as New Zealand closed the gap before the U.S. clinched victory in a time of 4:04.306 ahead of the Kiwis in 4:04.927.
There were emotional scenes at the finish as the Americans celebrated having been runners-up in 2012 and 2016 and third at the 2020 Games.
World records continued to tumble earlier on day three of track action with Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen again showing why he is regarded as the best track sprinter of his generation with an incredible 200-metre flying lap to top the time sheets in qualification for the track cycling sprint.
Australian Matthew Richardson initially broke the world record set by Trinidad and Tobago's Paul Nicholas in 2019.
Richardson clocked 9.091 seconds to beat Nicholas's mark of 9.100 set at high altitude in Bolivia but he could not celebrate for long as the 27-year-old Lavreysen, fresh from his team sprint gold on Tuesday, clocked 9.088, averaging 79kph.
Lavreysen, nicknamed The Beast, is going for three golds at the Paris Games and is the favourite for the sprint and keirin.
Extremely warm conditions inside the velodrome, together with wider banking on the curves allowing riders to generate more speed, have made for fast sprinting times.
Both the men's and women's team sprints being won in world record times while Australia's men also set a team pursuit world record in the first round on Tuesday.
The start of the women's keirin rounds saw New Zealand's world champion Ellesse Andrews make it safely through to the quarter-finals, as did Britain's Emma Finucane and Canada's Olympic sprint champion Kelsey Mitchell.
Colombia's world silver medallist Martha Bayona was surprisingly knocked out.
