Olympics-Cycling-Dutch joy as Lavreysen powers to another gold, Italy win women's Madison
By Martyn Herman
SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France, Aug 9 (Reuters) -Harrie Lavreysen did what he does best on Friday as the flying Dutchman once again proved to be in a league of his own to retain his Olympic sprint title in dominant fashion.
Just as in Tuesday's team sprint final, the outcome looked inevitable as this time the 27-year-old known affectionately as The Beast outpaced Australia's Matthew Richardson.
Lavreysen has now repeated his Tokyo double gold and if, as expected, he completes the hat-trick in Sunday's keirin he will become the first male Dutch athlete to win five Olympic golds.
"I haven't been beaten a lot in these last years, and if I was beaten it was by Matthew," the former BMX rider, told reporters. "Seeing him here in the finals, it was hard.
"He's riding crazy sprint races, doing 9.4 seconds from the front. I didn't even do it this week. A lot of respect to him. He was the best opponent to have in the Olympic final."
Friday's other gold medal saw Italy's women win the Madison ahead of world champions Britain -- Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini producing a devastating burst to gain a lap late on and clinch victory in a thrilling 120-lap race.
Britain's Elinor Barker and Neah Evans edged out the Netherlands duo of Maike van der Duin and Lisa van Belle, who had looked on course for the win, to secure silver.
"I think at halfway nobody would believe we could win, but we never give up," Guazzini said. "We had written Italy on our chests, and this gave us all the motivation in the world."
GOLDEN HARRIE
Lavreysen is threatening to leave even the golden careers of British sprint giants Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny in the shade.
"If he wants to go to Los Angeles (for the 2028 Olympics), I feel sorry for the rest of the world," Dutch coach Mehdi Kordi said of the former BMX rider.
Lavreysen, a 13-time world champion, put down a marker when he broke the world record in the 200 metres flying lap in the early stages of the sprint competition on Wednesday.
From then on he was imperious through the rounds, beating a succession of the world's fastest riders with apparent ease.
Lavreysen duly disposed of Britain's Jack Carlin in Friday's semi-finals but his team mate Jeffrey Hoogland was beaten by Australia danger man Richardson.
Later he returned for the final and while he had to dig far deeper against Richardson, he still had too much in the tank.
"I was even more nervous in the semi-final than I was for the final," Lavreysen, who stood on the track holding his bike aloft in front of his travelling fan club, said.
"Because I knew in that final I could finally throw everything out that I've got."
Richardson was
"Harry is the greatest cyclist probably of all time. He’s a 13-time world champion. He doesn't skip a beat. He wins like basically everything," he said.
Carlin beat Hoogland in a controversial bronze decider when the Scot flirted with disqualification as a coming together forced a re-start in which the Dutch camp felt Carlin left his racing line coming off the final bend.
The Scot now has 15 medals from major championships, all of them either silver or bronze.
WORLD RECORD
The women's sprint competition also began in fast and furious fashion with Germany's Lea Friedrich setting a world record in the 200 metres flying lap during qualification.
Once again the Olympic track proved to the liking of the sprinters as Canada's Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell watched her world record mark of 10.154 seconds, set five years ago at altitude in Bolivia, beaten several times.
New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews, crowned keirin champion on Thursday, was the first to lower that with 10.108 before Friedrich took it down to 10.029.
The women's sprint continues on Saturday with the quarter-finals with Britain's world champion Emma Finucane still in the hunt for her second gold of the Games.
Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris and Hugh Lawson
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