Olympic Games: Viviani wins gold in Omnium, Cavendish silver

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Elia Viviani gave Italy a richly deserved gold medal after getting up from a crash in the points race to resume his flawless Olympic performance. The Italian dissolved into tears after taking a victory so long in the making.

“I’ve won the most important race of my life, I’ve been thinking about this medal for four years,” Viviani told Gazzetta dello Sport after proudly singing the Italian national anthem.

“That’s why I cried so much. I’ve worked so much for this but also suffered a lot of disappointment. I had to work to get over it all but now it’s been worth it all."

Cavendish fought off the challenge of defending champion Lasse Norman Hansen to finally gain the Olympic medal he missed in Beijing.

"I have got my Olympic medal. It is really nice, but gold would've finished the collection. I did a pursuit yesterday and was unhappy I didn't break the Olympic record, that's just me," Cavendish said.

"People are forgetting the team we have got behind us. It is incredible how they have worked. Without those guys I wouldn't be here."

Norman Hansen put in a brilliant performance, lapping the field early in the race, but fell short of overcoming the 26 point deficit which resulted in part from his last place in the Elimination Race. He did enough to take the bronze medal despite a late surge by world champion Fernando Gaviria (Colombia).

Norman Hansen attacked early in the proceedings and claimed two five-point sprints en route to lapping the field. The 30 points gained pushed him into second in the standings. Soon Roger Kluge would join him in taking a lap, but while the German was off the front, disaster nearly struck Viviani.

Cavendish sparked a crash when he moved down the track and took out Korea's Park Sanghoon's front wheel. Viviani and Glenn O'Shea (Australia) were unable to avoid the fallen Korean.

In the chaos, Gaviria escaped and took a lap before the officials neutralised the race to attend to Park, who was taken away on a stretcher. They would later rescind Gaviria's 20 point bonus for the lap, denying him the bronze medal.

"It was my fault, I should have been looking where I was going a bit more," said Cavendish. "I hope he [Park] is all right, really. I apologised to Elia when he went down."

O'Shea and Viviani remounted and rejoined the race. After the racing resumed, the race turned into a series of attacks by Norman Hansen and Viviani - clearly the strongest two riders in the race. But Cavendish had enough speed on his side to take important points in the last three sprints while the Dane clearly struggled after his previous efforts.

None could overtake Viviani, who celebrated his victory with his family trackside.

Cavendish into second after Flying Lap

Elia Viviani (Italy) continued his consistently strong performance in the Men's Omnium with a second place finish in the flying lap. The Italian was 0.16 seconds slower than New Zealand's Dylan Kennett, who won the kilometer in the morning.

Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) put some daylight between himself and Frenchman Thomas Boudat with a third place in the sprint, while Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark) continued his upward trajectory after a disaster in the Elimination Race. The defending Olympic champion was fourth fastest.

Going into the points race, Viviani enjoyed a 16 point lead over Cavendish, with Norman Hansen in third at 26 points. Boudat faded to fifth, tied on points with Kennett at 150 points, 28 behind Viviani.

Viviani takes lead after Men's Omnium Kilometer Time Trial

The morning session of day 5 of track cycling at the Olympic Games in Rio saw the men's omnium kilometer time trial shuffle the overall standings. Dylan Kennett (New Zealand) posted the fastest time, coming close to Chris Hoy's Olympic record with a 1:00.9 to top Glenn O'Shea (Australia). But the third quickest time from Elia Viviani put the Italian in the lead of the standings.

Thomas Boudat (France), the overnight leader, finished 11th and dropped down to second in the rankings, while Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) remained in third overall with sixth place finish. He is tied on points with Boudat at 126, with Viviani on 140 heading into the final two events.

Meares eliminated in Women's Sprint 1/8 Final

In the 1/8 final, Britons Rebecca James and Katy Marchant sailed through their heats to move on to the quarterfinals. James pushed French woman Virginie Cueff to repechage, while Marchant took the win over German Miriam Welte.

Wai Sze Lee (Hong Kong) pushed the defending champion Anna Meares to repechage, and unfortunately for the Australian, she faced Zhong Tianshi (China), who was too formidable in the three-up race with Welte. Meares was eliminated from the competition and finished out her Olympic Games with a 10th place in the final after taking the bronze medal in the keirin.

Keirin gold medalist Elis Ligtlee (Netherlands) moved on as did Anastasiia Voinova (Russia), Kristina Vogel (Germany) and Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania).

Trott leads Omnium after winning Individual Pursuit, Elimination Race

Defending Omnium champion Laura Trott resumed her place at the top of the leaderboard after winning the Omnium Individual Pursuit. Trott topped USA's Sarah Hammer, the silver medalist in London, by almost two seconds, while Jolien D'Hoore was third.

Trott led Hammer by six points, with 78 points after two events. D'Hoore was tied on points with Hammer at 72. Scratch race winner Tatsiana Sharakova was a distant 10 points from Hammer and D'Hoore in fourth.

The three favourites were again the top three in the Elimination Race, with Hammer racing from the back to make it to the final three, but was pushed out by D'Hoore. Trott handily dispatched the Belgian to win and surge to a 8 point lead on D'Hoore with Hammer third at 10 points.

Sharakova wins Women's Omnium Scratch Race

Laura Trott (Great Britain), the defending Olympic champion in the Omnium, got her competition off to a strong start with a solid second place in the scratch race after Tatsiana Sharakova (Belarus) lapped the field solo.

Trott led the sprint out for the entire final lap and then easily beat Jolien D'Hoore (Belgium) to the line, with Sarah Hammer (USA), the silver medalist from London, coming in third.

There was a minor crash in the field as Sharakova made her way around to take a lap. Canada's Allison Beveridge tangled with Anna Knauer (Germany) and went down, but both were able to finish the race.

Results

Men's Omnium Final Standings

Points Race

Men's Omnium Flying Lap

Men's Omnium Standings after five events

Men's Omnium Kilometer Time Trial

Women's Sprint 1/8 Final

Women's Sprint 9-10th Final

Women's Omnium standings after three races

Women's Omnium Elimination Race

Women's Omnium Individual Pursuit

Women's Omnium Scratch Race