Tokyo Olympics track cycling round-up: GB gold in women's Madison and bronze for Carlin behind Dutch duo on day five
More medals for GB, including the first-ever women's Madison victory, at the Olympic Games
Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny claimed the first-ever gold medal in the women's Madison before Jack Carlin won bronze in the men's sprint, the dominant dutch duo of Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland battling it out in the gold medal final.
It was also a day of more sprinting as the women whittled themselves down and the number of track events left at the Tokyo Olympics continued to tick down.
Women's Madison
The British pair of Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald were untouchable as they stormed to the first-ever women's Madison gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
They started as they meant to go on, winning almost every sprint in the first half of the race, putting distance between themselves and the formidable Dutch pairing of Amy Pieters and Kirsten Wild.
A big crash then took down the Dutch, Australian, Belgian and Polish duos, putting GB further out of reach.
As the other nations scrambled for silver and bronze, Britain weren't done just yet as Kenny won the final sprint, capping a dominant display that saw them accrue 78 points compared to second-place Denmark's 35 and bronze medallist ROC's 26.
Result
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1. Great Britain, 78pts
2. Denmark, 35pts
3. ROC, 26pts
4. Netherlands, 21pts
5. France, 19pts
6. Poland, 9pts
7. Australia, 9pts
8. Italy, 2pts
9. United States, 1pt
10. Belgium, -18pts
Men's sprint
It was up to ROC's Denis Dmitriev and GB's Jack Carlin to try and disrupt the two Dutchmen Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen in the semi-finals of the men's sprint.
The best of three contests, Dmitriev lead out the first race with two laps to go but couldn't stop Hoogland from coming around to take the first victory before Hoogland then took it up on the front in the second and held the Russian off to secure his spot in the gold medal final.
Jack Carlin attacked Lavreysen but the Dutchman held him off after the sprint opened up with one and a half laps remaining in the first contest. The second race was a cagier affair, Lavreysen forcing Carlin to lead it out, the Brit fighting all the way to the line but unable to stop the Dutchman crossing the line first to meet his compatriot in the final.
Carlin now faced Dmitriev for the bronze and outclassed the Russian, winning the first two races with relative ease, a huge cheer erupting from him as he claimed the third-place medal.
The gold medal final was a much closer affair, Lavreysen leading it out before Hoogland swooped past to go 1-0 up.
Hoogland then looked to have finished the job off before his compatriot just caught and passed him on the line to level the score and provide a tantalising deciding race.
A tetchier opening lap for the final bout, weaving over the track and the two riders nearly crashing after an overlap of wheels. Lavreysen proved the stronger, however, as Hoogland ran out of gas, Lavreysen sailing across the line to claim gold.
Women's sprint
The women's sprint saw riders first set a flying lap to try and progress to the next round, with New Zealand's Elise Andrews breaking Becky James' OR with a 10.563, a successful couple of days after her Keirin silver yesterday.
France's Mathilde Gros then set a new best time of 10.4 seconds, eight riders breaking James' record so far, before Lea Friedrich came through with a blistering 10.310.
Five riders eliminated from the first round with the 1/32 finals progressing without any real upsets.
Then in the 1/16 Katy Marchant got through against former world champion, lee Wai Sze from Hong Kong, as 12 riders made it through as the whittling down process continued, as did the untold number of sprint contests this Olympic Games.
Joining Marchant in the next round, to be raced tomorrow, are Germany's Friedrich and Hinze, ROC's Voinova, Canada's Mitchell and Genest, New Zealand's Andrews, China's Zhong, France's Gros, Hong Kong's Lee (through repechages), Ukraine's Starikova and the Netherlands' Braspennincx.
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.
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