Australia clinch gold after final lap Great Britain drama
Australia secured men's Team Pursuit gold for the first time since the 2004 Olympics, beating Great Britain in the final matchup with a time of 3:42.067.
The race was a close-run thing for 3.75km of the 4km, with the lead switching hands several times and never more than two-tenths of a second separating the two squads.
However, the final 250-metre lap saw one of Great Britain's three remaining men – Ethan Hayter – narrowly avoid a crash, slipping off the saddle and dropping away from his teammates.
At the line, the Australian quartet of Sam Welsford, Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien from Australia took the win.
“It was close, and I knew in the last three laps they would come quicker, and we just tried to match it. The boys did a good job of keeping their nerve," Welsford said.
"It is pretty crazy to call ourselves Olympic champions now. We probably did not have these expectations when we started training together. To come together like we did in the last month was pretty special.“It has been 20 years since Australia won this, so that will sink in (over) the next week.”
The deficit was 2.237 seconds with Great Britain's Daniel Bigham, Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield, Oliver Wood and Hayter walking away with the silver medal.
“We knew we had to be on the line, we had a lot to do, it wasn’t out of our grasp," Tanfield said after the finish. "We had to go hot and hold on. We didn’t funnel in at the end but we’re still very proud of what we achieved. It was a great experience.”
In the earlier bronze medal matchup, Italy beat Denmark to snatch the final spot on the podium. The Danish quartet started quickly, putting 1.069 seconds into the Italians after the opening kilometre.
However, they faded as the race continued, dropping to 0.814 seconds and 0.438 seconds ahead at the 2km and 3km marks. Over the final kilometre, however, the Danes lost riders and organisation, as Italy powered on with three men.
"We did the maximum of the potential we have in the legs. Today we get this amazing bronze medal," said Ganna, glad to share with teammates Simone Consonni, Jonathan Milan and Francesco Lamon.
The 2020 gold medallists turned the tables to go up 0.544 seconds at 3.5km before eventually crossing the line alongside each other 1.941 seconds up with bronze in the bag.
"For everyone who has a big dream in their head, you want to think about the best result. Then, if you don't get it, it's like a snake in the head. Yesterday was a really hard day, where an amazing Australia got an amazing result," Ganna added in recognition of the new gold medallists.
It was heartbreak for Denmark, the 2023 world champions with Niklas Larsen
Carl-Frederik Bévort and Rasmus Pedersen on the Paris team and joined by Lasse Norman Leth. Both Pedersen and Larsen were part of the squad that took a silver at the Tokyo Olympics. Pedersen was happy to be in a medal round, but knew it would be close going up against Italy.
"it's the Olympic defending champions that we're up against in Italy. It was still close and from my point of view, it looked like I was actually in front of Italy when we came over," Pedersen surmised at the end.
"I just think that everybody in a team pursuit needs to put it all out on the finish line. And perhaps we did maybe a bit too rough mid-section and had not quite the best distribution of taking the lead on the way. So maybe we could have done a bit better, but still we are in the medal race.
"It just depends on some fraction of a second between the guys, maybe they could have hung out all the way to the finish line. I think we left it all out there and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't."
Australia set new world record in first round
Australia smashed the men's team pursuit world record in the first round of the Paris Olympics competition, carving a massive 1.302 seconds off the time Italy set in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 against the same Italian team in the first round.
"The track is so good. It has been a bit of a surprise to see 42 seconds (3:42.958) to be honest," Sam Welsford said. "I was not expecting that. We had a lot more to give at the end of that race."
The Australian team are chasing redemption after a horrific crash in the early rounds when one of their riders' bars broke in qualifying and then they regrouped to finish with the bronze medal.
"For us, specifically, we had a bit of a disappointing disaster in Tokyo with our crash, so it was a lot of redemption to come here, and we had a really good shot at it. We nailed the process and the preparation. It has been a huge focus here."
The Aussie team were so fast they closed in on lapping the Italians - something almost unheard of in the team pursuit in the recent past. Welsford expects more fast riding in the final on Wednesday where they will face Great Britain in the gold medal final.
"I think it will be fast tomorrow. I think it might not be as fast because we had bit of a slipstream coming into the last two laps, but I think with the conditions again, and with the level of the Olympic final, you're going to find that extra boost. And I think they'll come out. The Brits will come out really well, and we just have to try answer."
Australia had the upper hand against defending Olympic champions Italy throughout their 4km effort, but Italy's time was good enough to move them on to face their Tokyo rivals Denmark in the bronze medal final.
Great Britain and Denmark had a stunning back-and-forth battle to make the gold medal final, the Danish team holding back after hitting out much too fast in the qualifying round.
This time, it was Great Britain, lacking an injured Dan Bigham and adding Charlie Tanfield to their line-up, who went out fast. But midway through the 4km effort, the British team settled into their rhythm and Denmark began to pull away.
Britain, however, had saved some for a late surge to get ahead of the Danish in the final kilometre but both teams were fighting close to world-record pace.
In the final lap, Britain's Ethan Hayter surged, bringing the team home in 3:42.151, while the Danes faded, finishing in 3:42.803.
Australia fastest in men's Team Pursuit qualification
Australia put in a brilliant performance in the men's team pursuit to take the lead in the qualification heats, setting a near-world record of 3:42.958. Kelland O'Brien dropped off after 2750 metres and screamed at teammates Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy, and Sam Welsford from the sidelines as they hurtled toward a near-world record, but landed 0.926 shy of Italy's Tokyo record.
Great Britain's quartet of Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood, Dan Bigham and Ethan Vernon put in a strong ride with a time of 3:43.241 to qualify for the first round.
Denmark struggled in comparison to their team from the Tokyo Olympics, hitting out with the fastest first 3,000 metres but fading in the final kilometre. The team switched up their roster in the past three years with Niklas Larson and Rasmus Pedersen remaining but Tobias Hansen and Carl-Fredrik Bevort replacing Lasse Norman Hansen and Fredrik Rodenberg. They came through 0.449 seconds slower than Great Britain.
Italy had a shocking miscue past the halfway point of their 4km effort, with Francesco Lamon pulling off and Simone Consonni struggling to get onto the wheels of Jonathan Milan and Filippo Ganna. They finished off the pace in fourth but qualified for the first round and can make up for the mistake.
The hometown crowd went wild for the French foursome, with Thomas Boudat, Benjamin Thomas, Thomas Denis and the only non-Tom, Valentin Tabellion, tucked in behind Britain in the standings with a 3:45.514.
New Zealand's Aaron Gate, Tom Sexton, Campbell Stewart and Keegan Hornblow put in a solid ride to qualify to move on, finishing just a tenth of a second slower than France with a 3:45.616.
Belgium set a solid first time, coming just five seconds from the world record with a 3:47.232 as conditions on the track were incredibly fast, even the loss of Robbe Ghys, who withdrew for "medical reasons", and was replaced by 22-year-old Noah Vandenbranden to ride with Dens Tuur, Fabio van den Bossche and Lindsay De Vylder.
Canada's breakthrough squad of Dylan Bibic, Mathias Guillemette, Michael Foley and Carson Mattern had a brilliant first 3000 metres but fell apart a bit in the final kilometre and dropped behind Belgium at 3:48.964. But it was enough to move on to the first round, a historic moment for the Canadian men.
Germany's hopes appeared to fall apart when 22-year-old Tim Torn Teutenberg dropped off the pace of veterans Roger Kluge and Theo Reinhardt on the final laps after Tobias Buck-Gramcko, 23, had already pulled the plug. The mistake cost them and they were eliminated from the rest of the competition.
Japan had an even more disastrous performance, hitting out way too hard in the opening kilometre, losing Nakano Shinji early and then finishing a devastating last place, missing the qualification.
