Last-lap disaster costs Team GB cycling gold in men’s team pursuit as women snatch bronze

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With one lap remaining in one of the most gripping gold medal matches in recent years, and the deficit to world record holders Australia less than 0.2sec, Great Britain knew their only hope of victory in the men’s team pursuit was to leave Ethan Hayter on the front.
The 25-year-old Herne Hill rider had already led for nearly four laps and was on his absolute limit. But as the strongest rider in the team – the other two British riders still left in the race were only just clinging on to his wheel – there was nothing else for it. “I had the race in my hands,” Hayter recalled. “It’s what we all wanted.”
Then, it all went disastrously wrong. Hayter hit the wall. With the noise levels inside the Olympic velodrome reaching an ear-splitting crescendo, he lurched forward, onto his top tube, his bike swinging wildly across the track.
So close, yet so far 😫Team GB pushed Australia all the way in the men’s team pursuit final until Ethan Hayter came off his saddle right at the end 😲A silver medal to be proud of though 🙌#Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/jPcThUVk9S
A gasp went up around the arena. It seemed at first that Hayter might have touched wheels with Charlie Tanfield just behind him. But the truth was far simpler: his body was shutting down.
“I gave too much,” he admitted later. “I literally tightened up, went deep, my arms went weak and I fell off. I couldn’t hold myself up on the bike anymore. I don’t know how I stayed up. I’m sorry to these guys. It’s the deepest I’ve gone in a while as you can see. But it’s a little embarrassing.”
Embarrassing? Hayter has absolutely nothing for which to apologise. Not many pundits had given Britain much of a chance in this one. That they went so close to snatching gold was largely down to him.
At this level, is a game of fine margins. If only Hayter’s teammates had been able to last a little longer and give him half a lap less at the end. Dan Bigham later revealed that he had had a 65kph crash in practice last Friday, adding his performance had been “compromised”.
“It cost performance,” he said. “I can’t lie. I wasn’t at my absolute best today. I haven’t been at my absolute best since the crash. And that’s frustrating for sure. That possibly could have been the difference between gold and silver today.”
Bigham, who hit a sprinter who was on the track at the same time as GB were doing a practice pursuit, said he thought his Olympics might have been over when it happened. “I was in a lot of pain thinking, simply put, ‘I’ve f—– it’,” he said. In the end he made it back but he was not 100 per cent.
He needed to be. Having watched the Australian quartet of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien pulverise a world record in the first round on Tuesday night – the first team ever to dip below 3:41 – GB knew they were going to have to go out at world record pace if they were to stand any chance.
But with Hayter in the form he is in, they felt they confident. They were up 0.007 at 1km. Then they were down 0.140 at halfway. It was on a knife-edge. The deficit went out to 0.3 or 0.4 at one point but GB had clawed it back to less than 0.2sec going into that final lap.
Who knows what might have happened had Hayter stayed up. “We lean on him a lot,” Bigham admitted. “He’s in epic form right now. In the qualifying rounds he’s not been full gas. He’s been riding it in and Ollie [Wood] and Chas [Tanfield] have had to be sucking his wheel and hoping for the best. We felt we could do it, the spreadsheet said we could do it, but we probably gave him half a lap too much and that cost us. We gave him four and three quarters. Normally we give him four and a quarter.”
Their silver also came with a silver lining: it was the 1000th medal won by Team GB in Olympic history.
The 1001st came in the women’s team pursuit not long afterwards. Again, there were regrets. The quartet of Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jess Roberts had narrowly lost an epic first round contest with the United States by just 0.279 secs, setting up a bronze medal clash with Italy rather than a gold medal clash against New Zealand.
A thrilling comeback by Team GB! 👏They’ve bagged bronze in the women’s team pursuit! 🚴🚴🚴🚴🇬🇧#Olympics #BBCOlympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Pv2gU36aw2
Had Katie Archibald not broken her ankle in June, GB would almost certainly have won gold.
Instead they had to console themselves with bronze, beating Italy by two seconds, while the United States – who had Olympic road champion Kristen Faulkner and pursuit machine Chloe Dygert in their ranks – went on to beat the Kiwis to gold.
Afterwards, Barker paid tribute to Archibald: “There’s four of us here today but we’re a squad of more than that and we wouldn’t be here without the standard set by Katie, by Meg [Barker], our reserve rider and by Neah Evans who didn’t make the squad.
“We’re the ones that made it but only because we’ve been pushed by those others. Obviously, we’re thinking about Katie every single day and hoping her recovery is going well.”
Action starts at 16:00 BST, with the omnium scratch race. It’s a chance for Ethan Hayter to put today’s heartbreak behind him in this event, judged over four different races. The scratch race, tempo race, elimination race and points race will decide the medals by end of racing tomorrow.
Then there’s the men’s sprint quarter-finals and the women’s keirin quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, as GB’s rising star Emma Finucane shoots for a second gold medal. 
Mikhail Yakovlev (Israel) went for power over finesse, heading to the front from the get-go and accelerating from a lap and a half out.
Not subtle enough: Mateusz Rudyk (Poland) tracked him and came past late, with Azizalhasni Awang (Malaysia) on his wheel and unable to pass.
That’s today’s racing over.
It’s a three-up race. Having pushed Carlin close, Nicholas Paul ran out of legs and was not in contact with the leaders on the last lap. Leigh Hoffman (Australia) led it out, but Yuta Obara (Japan) had the strength and vague freshness – they’ve done four or five heats today each – to pip him. 
All smiles from the GB quartet. They were probably missing Katie Archibald’s firepower after her freak injury, not sure they could have done much better than bronze.
The US listen to the strains of their national anthem. They hung on well at the end, though New Zealand were on the verge of falling apart too.
On Hayter falling off his saddle, Bigham said they had given him too much to do. He had been holding something back in the rounds and they knew he was their best shot at gold. They switched Charlie Tanfield in as he has a slightly higher threshold than Ollie Wood and they felt would be better able to hang on to Hayter’s wheel.
“We thought we had to go out at world record pace and hope we had it at the back end,” Bigham said. “And that’s pretty much how it was. We gave half a lap too much to Hayter. He literally found the limit and fell off the saddle.
“We gave him four and three quarters. Normally we give him four and a quarter.”
Dan Bigham has just told us in the mixed zone that he had a 65kph crash in practice last Friday. He was doing a changeover during a pursuit and he hit a sprinter who was cruising around on the blue line.
“He was riding around on the blue, which they’re well within their rights to do, but it’s not really the done thing in these sessions because there’s team pursuit guys doing changes,” he said. “So I went to change on this corner and hadn’t spotted him and simply rode into him at 65kph.”
Bigham said initially he thought his Games was over. He thought he might have broken a collarbone. He added he was still in a lot of pain, and he was worried it might have cost them gold today. 
“It cost performance,” he said. “I can’t lie. I wasn’t at my absolute best today. I haven’t been at my absolute best since the crash.
“And that’s frustrating for sure, that possibly that could have been the difference between gold and silver today. 
“I was the most nervous I’ve ever been. At the start, with the impact basically, I’ve just got a lot of pain in my joint. I’ve got some damage to it. Starting really hurts.
“With hindsight, there’s regrets, frustrations but I’ve done given everything I can and the team fully supported me with the physio treatment, ice therapy, everything they’ve done since then to get into a state where I could sit on the start line in an Olympic final. I gave my all.”
 
Ethan Hayter waves to the crowd, alongside Dan Bigham, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon and Ollie Wood, who was a reserve in the final.
That was an enthralling final, a pearl of a team pursuit match. They’re smiling, despite the pain of coming so close.
As Ethan Vernon told Eurosport earlier: “It feels like we’ve just lost the gold rather than won the silver at the moment.”
The Dutchman wouldn’t be tricked by Aziz Awang (Malaysia)’s track smarts and got ahead of him round the final bend, going toe-to-toe.
Awang goes through to the repechage heats, which will end the day’s track cycling action. 
So close again.
Paul dived down the banking and inside Carlin, then pinned the Briton on the banking. The Scotsman took the lead by haring past unexpectedly. It looked like the Trinidadian was going to overtake him but holding the inside line, Carlin would not be overtaken and held on until the line. Chris Hoy-esque power and confidence.
That’s both GB sprinters through to tomorrow’s quarter finals, after Hamish Turnbull’s even tighter win over Yakovlev.
Ota Kaiya (Japan) used his smarts there against Leigh Hoffman, squeezing past and surprising the slowing Australian with two laps to go, then holding him off. 
Now, it’s Jack Carlin’s time to shine. Nicholas Paul (Trinidad and Tobago) is a dangerous opponent, with a box of tricks. He won in the sprint at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow.
By 0.001 seconds. He sticks his tongue out and waves a chalky hand to the crowd.
Turnbull moved down the banking to the front, went from a lap and a half out and Yakovlev just ran out of road. A milimetre or two in it. Great win for the Morpeth sprinter.
The man to beat, fastest qualifier Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands), led it out against Yuta Obara (Japan) and won in second gear. His long-time rival, Matthew Richardson (Australia), made light work of Mateusz Rudyk (Poland) too.
Now, it’s the turn of Team GB’s Hamish Turnbull, taking on Mikhail Yakovlev (Israel). It’d be some feat if he beats him, as muscle-bound Yakovlev qualified third fastest. Jack Carlin goes in the fifth heat of six.
They nearly broke up in the last 750 metres, with their third rider struggling to hold the wheel, but USA held it together. 4:04.306 – marginally missing the world record, but they won’t mind.
That’s two gold medals at Paris 2024 for Kristen Faulkner, the road race winner who took the gamble of trying the track last year. It’s paid off. Just desserts for Chloe Dygert too after her couple of crashes in recent week.
New Zealand were +0.6 seconds slower, a first women’s team pursuit medal of any kind.
USA are still going stronger at world record pace. But can they stay together with three?
They’re +0.845sec up on New Zealand after the first kilometre. That’s a flying start, taking control.
Faulkner, Williams, Dygert and Valente go for Team USA in a more star-studded line-up. But they qualified slower and do they have anything left to go quicker?
New Zealand have surprised throughout this competition and qualified fastest. Can they spring one more shock?
What a controlled, composed, speedy ride from Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jess Roberts. They didn’t panic when Italy threw everything at the first half of the race, leading by 1.2 seconds at one point.
They moved into the lead in the final 500 metres and stopped the clock at 4:06.382, helped by Josie Knight’s power. The Italian trio were in pieces, they couldn’t keep that pace.
A thrilling comeback by Team GB! 👏They’ve bagged bronze in the women’s team pursuit! 🚴🚴🚴🚴🇬🇧#Olympics #BBCOlympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Pv2gU36aw2
Only +0.666 down with 3km to go. Italy are suffering and slowing.
Maybe freshness is telling, as Italy swapped in a fresh rider while GB are on the same quartet. This is rapid, though.
That’s a surprise. Have they gone off too fast? They need to hold it all the way. 
After France beat Germany to fifth and Australia see off Canada for seventh, here go Team GB in the women’s team pursuit for bronze. Italy are no walkovers.
“We were so close, I could see it. It was nearly five laps [on the front] at the end and I gave too much. My whole body went weak and I couldn’t hold myself up on the bike anymore. I don’t know how I stayed up. Sorry to these guys, I think we gave everything and we can be proud of that silver medal.
We’re super happy to win a silver but it was really there for the taking for us today. We knew that, went out to get it and just came short in the end. It’s a shame.”
Team GB go in the bronze medal finals in 10 minutes, racing against Italy. It’s the 2023 world champs against the 2022 ones.
Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jess Roberts qualified almost three seconds faster earlier this afternoon. They’re odds-on favourites to take that bronze medal, before the USA and New Zealand vie for gold.
 
The sprinters joining him in the 1/8 finals through the four repechage heats were Kaiya Ota (Japan), Hamish Turnbull (Team GB), Mateusz Rudyk (Poland). Those next rounds will be at 18:38 BST.
The Morpeth man was outfoxed in the 1/16 finals, but he had the power to beat Vasilijus Lendel (Lithuania) in the repechage. Lendel squeezed past him and took the lead in the first lap, brushing shoulders, but Turnbull had too much speed. He’ll join Jack Carlin in the 1/8 round.
What a race. Team GB’s 1000th medal is a silver but they pushed Australia all the way. Just 0.168 behind heading into the final 250m. Not sure whether it was a touch of wheels at the end or whether Bigham just fell off his seat. Also not sure how he stayed up. As with the sprint, this was an event GB once owned but they have come back well since Tokyo.
That couldn’t have been much closer, with the two teams exchanging the lead for the first 1.5km before Australia forged narrowly ahead, never more than +0.5 seconds up during the race.
GB had pulled the deficit down to under 0.2 seconds going into the final 250-metre lap when Hayter, on the front, seemingly slipped off the front of the saddle. We’ll never know whether they could have overhauled their rivals.
Respect to the Australians too; 3:42.067 was their time. They’re the new team pursuit kings.
“It looked like his saddle broke. It did not,” Eurosport pundit Adam Blythe explains. “He fell off the front of his saddle with the effort.. Pulling on those handlebars, you really pull towards the end of your saddle. You have to be 5mm behind the botom bracket in a line down your seat, so it pushes it back. He did so well to hold it up.”
+0.168 lead for Australia into the final 250 metres in an enthralling, close contest, but as it looked like doing all the way to the wire, the Team GB rider on the front, Ethan Hayter, fell off his saddle in the finale and nearly crashed.
That was the end of their challenge, as he struggled to control his bike. That could have been worse. Looked like they might have touched wheels at 70km/h too.
Gold for Australia, silver for GB.
It’s silver for Team GB in the men’s team pursuit! 🚴🚴🚴🚴🇬🇧It was so, so close, but a last-minute wobble sees Australia take the gold 🥇#Olympics #BBCOlympics #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/OOYpZXo5Tx
GB only +0.140 down. All to play for, both with four riders left.
They’re quickly into their pursuiting positions. It’s neck-and-neck through the first kilometre. Nothing in it.
Ethan Hayter looks cool as he waits to step onto the bike, last of the GB foursome to put on his helmet. Literally cool: he’s wearing an ice vest.
Charlie Tanfield and Ethan Vernon look on in their helmets, with Dan Bigham back in, a replacement for Ollie Wood after missing the first round.
In around 3 minutes 40 seconds, we’ll know who is getting the gold. Here we go.
It struck me while watching that Belgium vs Canada match for 7th how rare it is to see two teams blown apart like that. Everything in track cycling tends to look perfectly choreographed. 
The riders all wear masks, which cover their faces. They show little emotion (until the race is over). They ride within an inch of the wheel in front. It’s almost robotic. Until it’s not. A race like that is a useful reminder that they are all on the ragged limit.
They both lost men at the 2,200-metre mark, and then Denmark’s Bevort lost contact and they blew up, each dropping one another and riding alone.
3:44.197 and a fine ride by Italy, with Filippo Ganna keeping the pace high in the closing laps.
They go through the first kilometre in 1:00.2, a smidge over a second up on Italy. Hopefully that fast start won’t come back to bite them…
Narrowly being beaten by Great Britain, Denmark were only 0.4 faster than defending Olympic champions Italy in the first round. This should be a close one.
The races for the minor placings were a clear indication of the fatigue of three heats. Both the Canada and Belgium team split up during a ragtag race for seventh, with the winning country’s third man finishing about 100 metres behind. 
That could be the difference in the medal contests: not burning off the all-important third man. In the febrile atmosphere, there’s no way of telling team-mates that you’re dropping off the pace.
New Zealand’s third man hung on over the closing laps to ensure their 3:44.741 would see off France by 2.9 seconds.
A reminder of this discpline: four riders set off from a standing start, aiming to set the fastest time over 16 laps of the track, a total distance of 4,000 metres.
They take it in turns to set a pace of over 65 kilometres per hour, dropping to the back of the quartet. Only three need to finish; the time is taken on the third man. It’s not just about aerodynamics, pain management and pure speed, bent into a tuck, it’s also about working cohesively while at the absolute physical limit and a few centimetres from your team-mate’s back wheel. Easier said than done.
It’s a hotly-awaited clash between fastest qualifiers Australia and Great Britain at 17:33 BST.
The good news for GB is that Dan Bigham is fit and ready to rejoin the quartet after missing yesterday’s first round ride. They’ll need all the freshness and firepower they can muster to beat their opponents, who set a new world record of 3:40.730 yesterday evening. GB were 1.4 seconds slower.
There’s plenty of ways to win a sprint heat, including the lesser-seen “going for a long one”. Trinidad & Tobago’s Nicholas Paul shows a prime example of it in the final heat of the men’s team sprint. He noticed his Japanese opponent Kaiya Ota was lagging about 10 metres off the wheel and hit the gas from 500 metres out. 
Job done. Ota qualified 0.021 seconds faster, but he was streets behind on smarts there.
Well, that’s the first time the slower of the qualifiers has won the race.
A former keirin world champion, Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia) is at his fourth Olympics and he used all his experience in the sprint events to get the better of debutant Hamish Turnbull (Great Britain). He manoeuvred him around before the final lap and put the power down to hold him off by a metre or so.
The 25-year-old from Morpeth will be disappointed but he’ll have a chance to go into the next round through the repechage races in 45 minutes.
 
27-year-old Jack Carlin goes up against Cristian David Ortega. He’s not nearly mean enough to earn the rhyming nickname “Snarling”. He’s slowly getting up to speed and keeping a beady eye on his Colombian adversary, looking over his shoulder.
Ortega couldn’t get on terms with him after diving onto his wheel. A controlled ride from the Scotsman. One more round under his belt as he looks to better his Tokyo bronze.
No surprises yet, as third and fourth quickest qualifiers Mikhail Yakovlev (Israel) and Leigh Hoffman (Australia) get the better of their opponents. 
Yuta Obara (Japan) pushed Hoffman all the way, forcing him to lead it out but swung up as they went round the final bend, out of gas.
 
Easy work for Lavreysen, stalking his prey and passing him before the final bend. Even easier for Matthew Richardson (Australia) in the second heat, diving down the banking to take the lead before the final lap to dispatch Vasilijus Lendel (Lithuania) at a canter.
He took silver on this track in the 2022 World Championships and will be hoping to cause an upset over rival Lavreysen here.
For Team GB, Jack Carlin goes in the fifth heat against Cristian David Ortega (Colombia) while Hamish Turnbull faces wily veteran Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia) in heat seven.
Remember, it’s one and done: the winner goes straight through, while the loser has a chance to progress in the repechage later this evening.
Heat one of the men’s sprint sees the newly-crowned world champion up against Frenchman Rayan Halal. 
Mark Cavendish once called sprinting like “chess on wheels”. That’s the mental game of tactics and cunning going on, not always apparent when fast men are haring around at almost 80km/h. 
Some prefer to force their riders onto the front, dive up the velodrome banking to gather more speed on the way down, slipstream them and shoot past them. Others would rather get the jump on rivals and hold them off with pure power.
The fastest qualifier, defending Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen, can probably use either tactic. He’s got speed to burn.
Having been through the 200m timed flying lap to seed the riders, we’re into the head-to-head matches. Team GB’s Jack Carlin qualified fifth fastest, with compatriot Hamish Turnbull in seventh. 
What is the team sprint? Glad you asked: riders start side-by-side from a standing start, racing over three laps of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome (750m). It’s often a cagey, tactical affair, many riders preferring to be in second place heading into the all-out final lap and overtaking their rival in the closing metres.
The big one is the men’s team pursuit final, split-screen sport at its best. Team GB and Australia have had a few ding dongs in the velodrome over the years: back in 2004, the Antipodeans got the better of the British quartet. Eight years later at London 2012, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh and Steven Burke turned the tables. 
Remarkably, the current quartet went ten seconds faster than that gold medal-winning time a dozen years ago, and it’ll take a time in the region of 3:40 to win.
In the women’s team pursuit, Team GB are firm favourites to beat Italy and take the bronze medal, while the USA and New Zealand race off for gold.
All the while, Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull will look to progress through the men’s sprint 1/8 finals on a day when the world record has already been lowered several times.
It’s Andy McGrath here, taking over from Greg Wilcox for the duration of the evening’s track action. Here’s a recap of the day’s action so far:
It was another successful morning at the velodrome for Team GB as all their riders kept their medal hopes alive.
First up, in the men’s sprint, both Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull won their heats to progress from an impressive field. Earlier – in what was effectively a time trial to decide the rankings for the heats – the world record, which had stood for five years, was bettered twice in quick succession. First by Australia’s Matthew Richardson, then by the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen whose new mark stands at 9.088secs.
Then both Katy Marchant and Emma Finucane qualified for the quarter-finals in the women’s keirin, the former, though had to progress through the repecharge, which she did without too much fuss.
There was hope that Team GB’s quartet of Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts would beat the strongly fancied US to make it to through to the gold-medal match in the women’s team pursuit. However, the American pipped them by 0.279 secs. 
They will race later when the GB’s men’s team take on Australia for the gold. 
These were the lucky riders to win their races to make it through to the next round (GB’s Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull are already through): Japan’s Yuta Obara, Suriname’s Jair Ton En Fa, Lithuania’s Vasilijus Lendel, and France’s Rayan Helal.  
Sees Japan’s Riyu Ohta and Steffie van der Peet quailfy. 
Lauriane Genest from Canada goes in the third heat. 
Can she avoid this banana skin? 
Of course she can along with New Zealand’s Rebecca Petch. 
…Kristina Clonan of Australia and Mexico’s Daniela Gaxiola Gonzalez make it through. 
THe big news is that Poland’s Urszula Los finish last. 
She finished second, the race won by Canada’s Kelsey Mitchell. 
The big news is that Martha Bayona Pineda is out. The strong medal hope for Colombia finishes fourth and will play no further part in the keirin. That’s a disaster for Colombian racing…
And it’s still cagey. 
Marchant is making her move on the outside. 
She’s second at the bell. 
At least one of the big names will go in the repecharges…
Those who didn’t finish in the top two of the heats have another go. 
Each of these races features five and only the top two go through. 
A reminder…
The keirin is an eight-lap track race that today will feature six riders, however there will be seven bikes out on the cedar wood boards of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. The seventh is not pedal-powered but instead an electric bike, otherwise known as a derny bike.
Favoured by strong sprinters, competitors require cunning and bravery once the fast-paced race reaches its climatic conclusion.
The derny starts the race with riders sitting in its slipstream as it gradually winds up the pace. Starting at 30kph, the vehicle gradually speeds up to 50kph before, after reaching the pursuit line on the home straight and with three laps remaining, it peels off the track.
No rider must pass the derny until it has left the track at which point they are free to duel it out with the first two riders from each heat progressing
Cristian David Ortega Fontalvo in the final race. 
And the home fans don’t have much to cheer as the Colombian wins by just 0.007secs in the first photo finish of the day. 
Has Mateusz Rudyk of Poland up against New Zealand’s Sam Dakin. 
It’s another really tight one, but Rudyk wins by 2/100ths of a second. 
Faces Mohd Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia. 
This should be a close one. And it is as Awang uses his experience to win by 0.075secs. 
Nicholas Paul is up against Yuta Obara. 
Paul’s world record was beaten twice earlier today. Can the favourite make it through? 
Just! pushed all the way he wins in 0.030 secs, that was fantastic racing. 
Sebastien Vigier is now facing Keiya Ota of Japan. No prizes for guessing who the crowd is backing…
And the home fans are silent at the finish as Ota pips Vigier at the line. 
By just 0.071 seconds, that was close but the Briton had the power in the home straight to make it through, having timed it to perfection. 
Turnbull is second, where he wants to be. 
But this is going to be a tight race. 
A slightly quicker start than we’ve seen previously. 
The Briton is up against China’s Yu Zhou. 
He starts the higher up of the two. 
Against Lithuanian Vasilijus Lendel. 
As we move on the races should, in theory get tighter due to how the rankings work. 
It’s Hoogland who just pips Lendel to the next round. It was the closest race we’ve seen so far, however. 
He gets the better of Rorke and is safely into the next round, beating the Canadian by 0.19secs. 
So far no shocks. 
With a lap to go Carlin is down. 
Jason Kenny, the coach, looking calm as he always does. 
The Briton is facing Canada’s Tyler Rorke. 
Of Australia facing Canada’s Nick Wammes. 
And Hoffman dominates winning by half-a-second.
Held the Olympic record for all of a matter or two. 
He’s up against Malaysia’s Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom. 
Yakovlev is hugely impressive as he comes from a way back to esaily win. 
Who held the world record for all of two minutes earlier is now up against Suriname’s Jair Ton En Fa. 
As expected the Australian wins. 
 
Harrie Lavreysen up against the slowest quailfier Max Doernbach of Germnay. 
This is a straight shootout, but there is a repecharge as a backup for the loser. 
No shock to see Dutchman Lavreysen winning. 
Here riders start side-by-side from a standing-start. The total length of the race is three laps (750m). The first rider across the finishing line of each match will progress into the next round.
This isn’t a head-down-and-go-from-the-start race. It’s very tactical. It’s a cat-and-mouse style rather than hell-for-leather. 
Most of the riders prefer to be in second place heading into the final lap and pipping their rival at the finish.
Having had the ‘time trials’ earlier it’s now for the men’s sprint matches. 
Valiant effort from the GB women’s team pursuit. But that is going to feel like a punch in the guts. Just +0.279sec slower than the United States after 4km. We’ll never know whether they would have won gold with Katie Archibald in their ranks but I suspect they would have. Still, bronze is on for them later.
Gold medal match: New Zealand vs US 
Bronze medal match: Great Britain vs Italy
But New Zealand are into the final. They win in 4:04:818. 
Italy finish in 4:07.491 and will race GB for the bronze. 
Can they set a new world record? 
They are on world record pace. 
The Kiwis are up early on by half a second. 
That was close but the US never relinquished their lead and ended up four/tenths off the world record. 
GB’s time of 4:04.908 is a new national record and guarantees them a place in the bronze-medal match. 
Inside the final km. The US are now up to three/tenths with two laps to go…
Smoothly and it’s now three vs three. 
US still up by two-tenths…
But the US still hold a two/tenths of a second lead. 
That’s up to four/tenths at the halfway mark. 
The US are in the lead but only my 8/100ths of a second. 
At the 1km mark GB are two/tenths down. 
This is for the right to race in the gold-medal match. 
Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts go for Team GB…
In a time of 4:07.908. That’s better than France but will it be good enough for the bronze-medal match-up? 
It’s now up to 1.6secs. As with Canada they’re down to three riders. 
Canada are down to three riders and Germany are up by 1.1seconds. 
The Germans are up by a second early on. 
They beat the Australians with a time of 4:08:292, the team from down under finished in 4:09:975. Will that be good enough to race in the bronze-medal match? 
Germany vs Canada next up…
With three laps to go the lead is one second. 
The next two heats are effectively a shootout for the right to race for bronze…
France are up at the halfway mark by half a second.
This is like a mini team time-trial over four kilometres. Four riders speed around the velodrome in a line, with riders taking turns on the front. Pursuit changes often see riders swinging up the steep banking of the track before diving down back into the slipstream of their team-mates.
As with the team sprint, the opponents begin from opposite sides of the velodrome. The clock stops when the third rider from a team crosses the finishing line.
And she does exactly that – she was on another level taking it on early and going clear of the field. She’s into he quarter (which are tomorrow afternoon). 
And the racing begins…
Finucane is in fourth, she tries to go round the top trio. She does that well and is leading at the bell. 
The Team GB rider already has one gold, she wants another. 
This heat is stacked with talent. 
Sees Colombia’s Martha Bayona Pineda back in sixth in the third keirin heat. The keirin specialist will have to go in the repecharge. Germany’s Emma Hinze and China’s Yufang Guo were the ones to make it through automatically. Both Chinese riders are therefore through. 
Sees Lauriane Genest back in third (behind Hettie van de Wouw and Liying Yuan) so the Canadian who won bronze in Tokyo will, like Marchant, have to go through to the repecharge. 
So she’ll have to go through to the repecharge and get through that way…
Andrews, Gros, and Marchant in a photo finish…
 
The racing begins. Top two is what they want…
Marchant is in third…
First couple of laps are steady while the derny bike gets them up to speed. 
How will she do? 
We’re about to find out…they’re off…
Here’s what to expect…
The keirin is an eight-lap track race that today will feature six riders, however there will be seven bikes out on the cedar wood boards of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. The seventh is not pedal-powered but instead an electric bike, otherwise known as a derny bike.
Favoured by strong sprinters, competitors require cunning and bravery once the fast-paced race reaches its climatic conclusion.
The derny starts the race with riders sitting in its slipstream as it gradually winds up the pace. Starting at 30kph, the vehicle gradually speeds up to 50kph before, after reaching the pursuit line on the home straight and with three laps remaining, it peels off the track.
No rider must pass the derny until it has left the track at which point they are free to duel it out with the first two riders from each heat progressing while the others will be in the repecharge. 
There you go. The outright world record which has stood for five years is lowered twice in the space of minutes. And at pretty much sea level, too.
That last world record stood for five years, Richardson’s only stood for a matter of minutes. The Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen goes through in 9.088…remarkable. Just 8/100ths off breaking the nine-second barrier. 
The flying Dutchman can zoom, can he go lower than Richardson? 
No, he cannot, his time of 9.2.93 is only good enough for fifth so far. 
The Briton goes round in 9.247, it’s the fourth fastest and he’ll easily make the next round. 
The Australian has smashed it! 
It’s 9.091, the previous mark of 9.100 had stood for five years (and that was set at altitude)! 
Nicholas Paul is the world record holder, but can only produce the fifth fastest time there, 9.371. But it’s more than good enough to get him to the next round. 
Then the Olympic record goes, as some thought it would, Israel’s Mikhail Yakovlev is the man to do it with 9.152 seconds!
Is third fastest with 9.350. Another sign that the Olympic record of 9.215 is under threat in Paris. 
Very decent time that from Hamish Turnbull. 9.346sec. I asked Jason Kenny last night about his riders’ chances in the individual events this week and he said both Turnbull and Carlin were in great shape. 
“12.2s all day for them,” Kenny said, a reference to their lap times from P2 and P3 during the team sprint. 
Writing that, Leigh Hoffman of Australia has just done a 9.242 which is searingly quick. The hot conditions here, the air pressure, and the wide track/steep banking in Paris are really making a difference. Not to mention the three years  of R&D since Tokyo. 
I would expect Carlin/Hoogland/Lavreysen to beat the Olympic record of 9.215 set by Hoogland in Tokyo, if not the world record of 9.100 which was set at altitude in Bolivia in 2019.
First up is Rayan Helal. No shock to reveal that the velodrome is raucous, the crowd roars him to a time of 9.501, that’s the seventh quickest so far and good enough to make it through. 
Then it’s his team-mate Sebatien Vigier. He too has the huge support of the crowd as he sets a time of 9.50, exactly the same time as Helal. It’s very rare to see matching time like that back to back. He, too, has definitely qualified. 
The Australian registers a time of 9.242, beating Turnbull’s time. That was just 3/100ths of a second off the world record. To state the obvious, they’re getting quicker. 
Turnbull still leads, remember that of the 32 riders only the first 24 will make it to the next round. 
He’s the quickest so far registering a 9.346, that’s an average speed of 77kpm. The British record is 9.306, so he wasn’t far off that. 
He already has a silver what can he produce here?
To decide the rankings for the matches. Only the top 24 qualify…
Currently, China’s Yu Zhou is the fastest with a time of 9.514.
Carlin and Turnbull coming up later. 
The sprint has taken place at the Olympics since 1904, making it one of the oldest events at the Olympic Games.
In order to filter through the 32 competitors in the individual sprint event, a 200m timed sprint takes place to rank the riders. From here, the riders are seeded and go into head-to-head matches depending on where they finished in this qualifying time-trial – known as a flying lap.
From there the matches begin in the 1/32 finals. Here riders start side-by-side from a standing-start. The total length of the race is three laps (750m), with the final 200m timed for ranking purposes. The first rider across the finishing line of each match will progress into the next round.
This isn’t a head-down-and-go-from-the-start race. It’s very tactical. It’s a cat-and-mouse style rather than hell-for-leather. 
Most of the riders prefer to be in second place heading into the final lap and pipping their rival at the finish.
It’s another busy day at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome with Team GB hoping to go one better than Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe, and Hamish Turnbull who won Olympic men’s team sprint silver on Tuesday.
Today sees GB’s men’s quartet take on Australia in the final of the team pursuit. The British, who had their streak of three straight Olympic pursuit titles snapped three years ago, subbed Charlie Tanfield into the lineup along with Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood and Ethan Vernon to face Denmark in the semi-finals. The quartet trailed by more than a second at one point before rallying to win in 3:42.151 and advance to the gold-medal race that takes place this evening.
However, they know they’ll have their work cut out if they are to get their hands on the gold with the Australian quartet of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien setting a new world record on their way to tonight’s showdown. They routed reigning Olympic champions Italy in the heats setting a new best-ever mark of 3:40.730, more than a second faster than Italy’s winning time at the Tokyo Games.
“Golly, we knew we were going quick, but I don’t think we realized we were going that quick out there,” Welsford said. “I think we just really gelled really well. The team out there today, we just really executed.”
The women’s team pursuit squad, racing here without the injured Katie Archibald, were third fastest in qualifying as Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts set a time of 4:06.710, two seconds off an outstanding time from New Zealand. That means the GB quartet will race off against the US team for the right to be in the gold-medal race.
That run will come at 12.52, after the first round of the women’s kierin, which features GB’s Katy Marchant, and the qualifying of the men’s sprint which features Carlin and Turnbull, on the back of their silver-medal winning exploits last night. 
Later on in the day, the men’s team pursuit finals takes place at 5.33, with the the women’s team pursuit finals at 5:57, followed by the men’s sprint 1/8 round.
Stay here for all the action.