Olympic Games Track recap - Fantastic French Finally Secure Track Cycling Gold

Track Cycling
Thursday, 08 August 2024 at 20:09
benjaminthomas
In another thrilling day on the track, two gold medals were handed out for the women's keirin and the men's omnium. We have witnessed great action with the likes of Benjamin Thomas and Elesse Andrews have taken the gold medals.
Let's find out who came out on top, and who else was amongst the action at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.

Men's Omnium 

In round three of the men's omnium, Team GB's Ethan Hayter was victorious just a day after falling from his saddle in the men's team pursuit. Hayter was the last man standing, after sprinting ahead of Italy's Elia Viviani and even had time to celebrate as he crossed the line. With that performance, Hayter put himself right back in contention for a medal on 86 points, trailing Belgium's Fabio van den Bossche who stood in first on 106 points with 1 round to go.
In the final, Frenchman Benjamin Thomas got the home fans rocking by winning the second of a total 10 elimination sprints, to close in on van den Bossche in first. Could he clinch the gold medal?
With 29 laps to go, Benjamin Thomas managed to lap his Belgian opponent and moved into the overall lead, to the delight of the home fans. But just a lap later, disaster struck as the Frenchman crashed after touching his rival's wheel. Thomas appeared shaken up, but managed to re join the group. 'Allez les bleus' rang out as the crowd rallied behind their gold medal hopeful.
And with 10 laps to go, Thomas rallied to win the 9th sprint to all but secure the gold medal, and the noise inside the Velodrome jumped up another notch. On the final lap, Thomas soaked up the atmosphere from the fans, as the French finally took their first track gold medal.
Benjamin Thomas survived the scare, and became France's latest cycling hero with an omnium gold medal.

Women's Keirin 

In the first semi-final, there was surprise exit for Germany's Lea Friedrich, who touched wheels with Van der Peet and could not recover. Up ahead, New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews won to book her place in the final, alongside second and third place riders, Daniela Gaxiola and Emma Finucane.
In the second semi final, Hetty van de Wouw impressed to take her spot in the final, alongisde Team GB's Katy Marchant and Emma Hinze of Germany.
In the final, Ellesse Andrews turned her World Championship title into Olympic glory with a commanding display. She was the favourite, and led from the front throughout, and made no mistake on her way to Keirin gold. 0.062 seconds behind her, van de Wouw took a silver ahead of Finucane in Bronze.
Finucane tried to make a move around the outside, but could not match the speed and power of Andrews over the final 100m. Team GB's Marchant will be disappointed not to have made the podium, finishing an agonising fourth.

Men's Sprint

The stage is set for tomorrow's medal races in the men's sprint. There was drama in the heats, as Jack Carlin was initially beaten by Ota in back to back sprints, but the Japanese rider was controversially relegated. Whilst no official reason for his relegation was reported, it is perhaps due to the two riders going elbow to elbow, which hindered Carlin's race.
In the re-run, Carlin and Ota went shoulder to shoulder again in an almighty sprint, with the Team GB rider coming out on top in a dramatic race. But the drama was not done there, as Carlin appeared to move from his line during his sprint, which is usually considered to be an illegal move, however the judges did not penalise the British rider.
Sprint favourites Matt Richardson and Harrie Lavreysen safely progressed through their and are surely set to go head to head for gold tomorrow.

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