It took just 30 minutes for deflation to turn to elation as Britain celebrated a new cycling hero at the Izu Velodrome.
Matt Walls grew up idolising Jason Kenny and on Thursday afternoon, just half-an-hour after the six-time Olympic champion relinquished his sprint throne with a quarter-final exit, he won Team GB’s first velodrome gold of these Games with an omnium performance for the ages.
Walls and Kenny have been sharing a room in Izu, a small city in the foothills of Mount Fuji and 150 kilometres from Tokyo where the track cycling is taking place.
And though Kenny says he has not dropped in many pearls of wisdom, some of the old magic has clearly rubbed off after Walls produced a Kenny-esque display. Dominant.
Walls, 23 and from Oldham, was perhaps the least known of the British cycling team before departure.
His track credentials were strong, a European Championship gold in 2018, a World bronze in 2020, but he was only really seen as an outside bet to medal.
To add to the mix, his preparation for these Games was far from perfect as he was struck down with Covid-19 while competing in the spring classics in March. He lost his smell, his taste and his bike for three weeks while he isolated in Belgium.
Although not insurmountable, spending nearly a month off the track just weeks away from the Games is hardly ideal, making this win all the more impressive. Whatever Kenny said certainly worked.
“Jason is so chilled about everything,” said Walls, following his victory live on Eurosport and discovery+.
“Obviously, it is pretty cool to room with him, I have only ever been with the endurance lads and so it has been great to be in the room with the sprinters.
“Covid caused a bit of an unknown. I was doing a race in Belgium at the time, so I had to isolate, come home, get checked and I ended up having three weeks off the bike in total.
“I then slowly got back into training but there was the concern of the long-term effects as well. Luckily, I was okay and then back to training and it’s now all worked out.”
In contrast to Walls, Kenny’s day went as expected. He hinted he was no longer able to compete for individual golds on Wednesday and that was proven 24 hours later as he was soundly beaten by Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen in both heats.
British cycling is faced with finding a new figurehead and Walls might not be a bad contender.
By taking gold, he won Team GB’s 50th medal of the Games, while he also became the first British male to win Tokyo 2020 omnium gold. Ed Clancy took bronze in London, Mark Cavendish silver in Rio. Now Walls has completed the set in an event that might be hard to follow but is brilliant to watch.
His family, watching in the village of Shaw and Crampton in Lancashire, were up through the night to watch every twist and turn.
His dad, Larry, will be particularly proud. It was he who first got Matt into bikes and the pair would go down mountains together, just having fun.
When Walls was 11 he started triathlon and it was there that his talent on two wheels was first identified. He was encouraged to head to the Manchester Velodrome. Twelve years on and the rest is now history.
He added: “Thank you to all my family and friends. I wouldn’t be here without them, especially my parents.”
The omnium is made up of four races with various challenges and the overall points leader at the end takes the title.
Walls won the scratch race, finished third in the tempo race and then second in the dramatic elimination race – where the last rider to cross the line at the end of each lap is knocked out, leading to a two-man shoot-out at the end.
Walls had a four-point lead over Netherlands rider Jan-Willem van Schip and France’s Benjamin Thomas going into the final event, the 100-lap points race which offers a mega 20 points for lapping the field, and a handful for the top four riders every 10 laps.
Walls lapped the field early to bag 20 points and then kept an eye on his challengers for the rest of the race to cement his title.
“I managed to get a good lead coming into the end,” he added.
“It’s been a hard day but I came into that points race with a bit of a lead and breathing room.”
When he gets home to Oldham, where he’ll be talk of the town, breathing room will be hard to come by.
Stream every unmissable moment of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 live on discovery+, The Streaming Home of the Olympics.
