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Emma Finucane insisted she will go into the individual sprint at Paris 2024 with “nothing to lose” after adding keirin bronze to her women’s team sprint gold on Thursday.
Following a narrow escape in the semi-finals, Finucane edged out team-mate Katy Marchant to the last step on the podium, earning Britain’s fifth medal in the velodrome this week.
New Zealand’s world champion Ellesse Andrews showed her strength, leading from the front to take gold as Dutch rider Hetty van de Wouw beat Finucane to silver.
Finucane needed a photo finish to make it into the last six after being challenged by Steffie van der Peet for third place in their semi, fearing her shot at a medal had gone.
“That bronze medal feels like a gold to me after scraping through the semi-final,” Finucane said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to leave everything on the track for that final’…
“Bronze means everything after the team sprint on Monday with the girls. It was so hard but it was worth it.”
Finucane, only 21, came to Paris carrying the burden of expectation after taking the individual sprint world title in Glasgow last summer, tipped by the likes of Dame Laura Kenny to win three golds. That hope is gone but she can still add to her haul with the sprint to come.
“It would be great to win another (medal) on Sunday but I’ve got to take each day as it comes,” Finucane said. “I just want to enjoy it because I’ve got nothing to lose and I’m going to leave everything on the track as I always do. After today I know the legs are there.”
While Finucane celebrated, there was frustration for Ethan Hayter who finished a disappointing eighth in the omnium.
The 25-year-old, a double world champion in the event, came to Paris as one of the favourites.
But with competition starting less than 24 hours after his dramatic late slip ended Team GB’s hopes of gold in the team pursuit final, Hayter rarely looked in the contest as Frenchman Benjamin Thomas took a hugely popular win.
Hayter did not have the kick he needed to ignite the racing in his usual way and admitted he did not feel himself, unsure if that was a hangover from the physical and emotional toll of the pursuit. He won the elimination race but barely made an impression in the other three events.
“Today I was on the backfoot and getting my head kicked in,” he said. “Definitely I didn’t want to be passive, it’s not my style. Normally I take it on and batter everyone’s heads in, that’s the style and then they start playing the game. I just wasn’t good.”
Hayter still expects to line up alongside Ollie Wood in Saturday’s Madison – Mark Stewart is the travelling reserve – but admitted to concerns over his form.
“It’s natural, isn’t it?” he said. “But I’ve got a whole day off tomorrow…Hopefully I’ll be better.”
Jack Carlin narrowly made it to the last four of the men’s sprint after a tetchy quarter-final against Japan’s Kaiya Ota, who was relegated in the second of their three races, but Hamish Turnbull went out.
Marchant’s Olympics are now over with Sophie Capewell to join Finucane in the sprint.
“On Monday we hit an all-time high and did something that I’ve been trying to achieve for the last 11 years,” the 31-year-old Marchant said. “I will definitely know when my time is up but it doesn’t feel that way yet. I just had my most successful keirin result in the Olympics so I’m not done yet.”
