Harrie Lavreysen defends Olympic sprint title, Italian women capture Madison gold in track cycling

MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France — Harrie Lavreysen was walking through the purple-carpeted infield of the velodrome after defending his Olympic title in the men's sprint competition Friday night when he came upon Dutch teammates Maike van der Duin and Lisa van Belle, who had just won the bronze medal in the tag-team Madison event.

Lavreysen stopped and gave them a hug.

They were the only ones who could slow him down.

Lavreysen swept his best-of-three semifinal against Jack Carlin of Britain, then swept past Matthew Richardson of Australia in the finals, giving the brilliant track cyclist from the Netherlands his second gold medal of the Paris Games.

“In the semifinals I was really keen on not making mistakes,” the 27-year-old Lavreysen said. “I was even more nervous than I was for the final, because I knew for the final, I could finally throw everything out that I've got.”

In the women's Madison, the Italian team of Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini gained a lap on the field and then won enough points in intermediate sprints to capture gold ahead of defending champion Britain and the team from the Netherlands.

Lavreysen, who will race for a third gold medal Sunday in the keirin, has long been the dominant sprinter in the world, winning the last five world championships along with his Olympic title. And earlier in the week, he teamed with Jeffrey Hoogland and Roy van den Berg to win the team sprint contest at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Richardson already had a medal, too, as part of the Australian team sprint bronze medalists. But he had a daunting task in trying to unseat Lavreysen, who also beat him on the same track two years ago in the finals of the world championships.

“I haven't been beaten a lot in these last years,” Lavreysen admitted, “and if I was beaten it was by Matthew. Seeing him here in the finals, it was hard. I expected it to be hard.”

In the race for bronze, Carlin and Hoogland split their first two races, sending the match to a decider. It had to be restarted once when Carlin swerved and clipped wheels with his rival, but the British rider eventually edged Hoogland for the medal.

Carlin now has 15 medals from the Olympics, world and European championships. He is still chasing his first gold.

In the Madison, which was added to the Olympic program for women at the Tokyo Games, riders work in teams of two as they try to accumulate points in sprints or by lapping the field. Only one rider is considered in the race at a time, though they can tag out at any point, usually by grabbing their teammate by the hand and flinging them forward.

The result is 120 laps of chaos where fans, coaches and even riders at times have no idea who is leading.

The race, which is named after its originating venue — Madison Square Garden in New York — was led most of the way by the British team, which won gold with different riders in Tokyo. But the Italians went on the attack with 38 laps to go, caught the back of the field to get their 20-point bonus and held on through the final 26 laps of the race.

“We actually didn't have a clear plan of how we wanted to race,” Guazzini said. “The first sprints, we were a little behind some other teams, and they got some points. So I was thinking that everybody had to be tired, because we were going fast, so I hoped I was less tired than the others, and I just decided to go."

Consonni and Guazzini finished with 37 points while the British duo of Elinor Barker and Neah Evans took silver with 31. Van der Duin and van Belle were the only other team to gain a lap and scored 28 points to take bronze.

“Really, I have no words,” said Consonni, whose brother Simone is a two-time Olympic medalist in the team pursuit, including his bronze at the Paris Games. “I only say thanks to all the team, for all the people who believed in us.”

In the women’s 200-meter flying lap, which serves as the qualifier for the sprint event, the world record was lowered twice on Friday. Olympic keirin champion Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand covered the distance in 10.108 seconds before Lea Friedrich of Germany snatched it away, stopping the clock in 10.029 for an average speed of 44.6 mph (71.792 kph).

In fact, the top four riders in a velodrome that has been producing record times all week came inside the previous mark.

Andrews, Friedrich and the rest of the medal contenders made it through their opening round of races without any trouble, but reigning Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell had to survive a last-chance race to advance through the night.

The women's sprint medals will be decided Sunday on the final day of the Summer Games.