August 8/24 16:47 pm - New Zealand & France Win Gold on Day 4

Posted by Editoress on 08/8/24
 

The fourth day of Olympic track competition saw gold medals awarded in the women's Keirin to Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand) and to local favourite Benjamin Thomas (France) in the men's Omnium. Canadians had a disappointing day in two events where Canada had entertained medal hopes.

In the Keirin, Canada had both Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell qualifying for the quarterfinals, however, both came up short in their races, failing to finish in the top four and move on to the semifinals. In the medal final, world champion Andrews went to the front with two laps to go and powered everyone off her wheel. Emma Finucane (Great Britain) tried to challenge in the last lap but faded to third as Hetty Van De Wouw (Netherlands) came by her in the final 50 metres to take silver.

Genest blamed herself for her tactical choice that ended her medal hopes. "Honestly, I feel really good. It happens so fast and it's in those moments that you realize that you have a chance and that if you don't take it, it won't work. And unfortunately, that's what happened. I knew there was one lap left, but I wasn't sure. And just that little doubt, sometimes, makes the difference. [...] I'm really disappointed because yesterday [Wednesday], I was given a second chance [in the repechage] and I don't feel like I took it today. I sincerely think that my legs are there and I really feel better mentally today than yesterday."

"The first thing she said to me [after the race] was: 'Can we run it again? My legs didn't even hurt,'" said Franck Durivaux, National Sprint Coach. "It's a big disappointment and we didn't come for that, especially with the legs they have. [...] It was up to her to make the move and anticipate what the Frenchwoman [Mathilde Gros] would do. When you're chasing, there's a little bit of stress that builds up and instead of being comfortable and going all out, you have to regain control ... but you've already lost control, so it's complicated. It's not that they don't have the legs. They're riding well, but tactically, they weren't up to par today."

Canada's Dylan Bibic was counted as one of the medal favourites for the men's Omnium, but it was clear going into the opening Scratch Race that former Scratch Race world champion was struggling. Bibic could barely hang on to the back of the field, and was eventually dropped. He was no better in the Tempo Race, and improved only slightly for the Elimination, an event he has finished top-3 in regularly. In the final Points Race, he managed to stay with the field, but was not able to contest for any points, eventually finishing 19th overall. Bibic left immediately after the race, but Endurance coach Laura Brown confirmed that he had not been feeling well; possibly suffering from the same bacterial infection that has hit other member of the team, and that has required strength-sapping antibiotics.

Laura Brown, the Men's Endurance coach, spoke after the Points Race: "After the Scratch Race, he said he wasn't feeling like himself. From there, we just encouraged him to continue to fight and make the most of the opportunities, and do the best he could, given how he was feeling. We feel for him; this Omnium meant everything to him. This was his main focus and he said he wanted to win a medal. It wasn't the way he wanted his first Olympics to go. We still believe in him, and we're really proud of the way he fought through. It's a brutal event, there's no time to really recover, it's 15-30 minutes between events. He pushed through and finished, and we're proud of that."

Thomas won the opening Scratch Race, lost the lead to Fabio van den Bossche (Belgium) after the Tempo and entered the final Points Race eight points back, and four points ahead of Iuri Leitao (Portugal). Both Thomas and Leitao took multiple laps in the Points Race, while van den Bosch could manage only one and began to fade in the final 30 laps, with the French rider winning by 11 points over Leitao and van den Bosch barely fending off Albert Torres Barcelo (Spain) to retain the bronze.

The men's Sprint also continued through the quarterfinals, with four riders advancing to tomorrow's semifinals and medal rounds - Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hooglands for the Netherlands, Australia's Matthew Richardson, and Jack Carlin for Great Britain.

Results 

Photos 

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