Paris Olympics: Harrie Lavreysen repeats as men's individual Sprint winner as Australia's Matthew Richardson takes silver

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Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) repeated with the gold medal in the men’s Sprint, sweeping the two races to distance Australian Matthew Richardson at the Paris Olympic Games.

It was the second gold medal in Paris for the Dutchman, and a career fourth gold medal across two Olympic Games appearances.

“I feel really, really good today, and it’s my best day ever," Lavreysen said after ripping out a blistering sprint against Richardson in the second race to go under the 9.5-second mark for the lap.

"In the final riding around in a 9.4 - that's insane. I didn't think that was possible. The whole sprint tournament I always tried to save my strength and not do too much, but in the final I could finally go crazy and go all in. It's amazing."

Richardson, falling to one of the greatest track sprinters in the sport, gave credit to his rival.

"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," Richardson said

"To be close to someone like that, someone who does what Harry does, is amazing to me. It wasn't that many years ago that I was looking at him or how fast he was and how big of a gap there was between him and myself. So to be anywhere close is an amazing feeling for me, and I still pitch myself."

"I'm super proud of how I raced, I really put it all out the track and didn't leave myself wondering 'what could it be?' So I'm proud of the silver for sure."

Richardson lost out in the quarterfinal to Lavreysen at Worlds last year and didn't make it to the medals and the Olympic silver was a big confirmation for the Australian.

"I knew I was capable of a result like this. Glasgow (2023 UCI Word Championships) was a little bit tricky for me, it actually knocked my confidence a little bit - could I get back to that sort of top finishing race? And I think I demonstrated here, that I am back."

In the battle for the bronze, Jack Carlin (Great Britain) overpowered the reigning silver medallist Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) in the decider. Carlin won the opener, then Hoogland knotted the competition to bring on the final three laps. 

Carlin also earned the bronze at the Tokyo Olympic Games, while Hoogland, a three-time world champion in the Sprint, was overcome with emotion in missing the final medal after the pair clashed during the decider at slow speed and the Dutchman missed out after the restart.

Carlin noted that he had come into the Olympics with a focus on the Keirin but had to fight in every round of the sprint tournament.

"It’s not like the first couple of races, you kind of saunter in, and you know you're going to get through. Every race was hard, and I can feel every one of them in my legs right now," Carlin said.

“My aim is the keirin, that was my aim when I came here. Sprint was a bonus if I got it, and it (keirin) starts tomorrow (Saturday), so I’m looking forward to it.”

Quarterfinal

There was drama in the Paris Olympics velodrome as Britain's Jack Carlin and Kaiya Ota (Japan) clashed in the men's sprint quarterfinal. Ota had the speed on Carlin and won the opening match, but was relegated.

In the decider, Carlin managed to get past Ota to take the win and while there was some argy-bargy and warnings against both riders, Carlin was able to sail into the semifinal.

There, however, he will face defending Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) in the semifinal.

Matthew Richardson (Australia) and Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) will face off in the semifinal to decide who will go onto the gold medal round.

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Qualifying

Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) continued his domination in the men's sprint events at the Olympic Games in Paris, setting a new world and Olympic record in the men's sprint qualifying 200m flying lap.

The record, 9.1 seconds, set by Nicholas Paul (Trinidad & Tobago) in 2019, was broken first by Australia's Matthew Richardson who sailed around the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome in a time of 9.091, but Lavreysen was soon eclipsed that mark.

Lavreysen's 9.088-second flying lap carved yet another record on the fast track, which has seen records set in the men's team pursuit and men's team sprint and women's team sprint.