Sprint, Men

Great Britain occupied first and second place in the 2016 final in Rio but now the domination in track cycling had switched to the Netherlands and, with their 1-2 at the 2020 UCI World Championships, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland were favourites. After all, they were still fresh from the team sprint title they had won at the Izu Velodrome a day earlier.

In qualifying, the mark was set early on by Britain’s Jack Carlin, the 2018 World Championship sprint silver medallist, who broke Jason Kenny’s Olympic record with a 9.306. World record holder Nicholas Paul of Trinidad and Tobago posted 9.316 but Carlin managed to hold onto the lead until just four raiders remained to tackle the 3.5 laps of the track, but what big names still had to go. There was the Dutch pair of Lavreysen and Hoogland, the ROC’s Rio bronze medallist Denis Dmitriyev, and the defending champion Jason Kenny.

Hoogland showed his class in setting a new Olympic record 9.215 while the next to go, Lavreysen, equalled his compatriot’s time. Dmitriyev registered 9.331 for fifth place while last to go, Jason Kenny’s 9.510, could only see him qualify in eighth place.

From the 30 starters in qualifying the fastest 24 went through to the first round. One of the most intriguing contests was the race between the reigning champion Kenny and Malaysia’s Azizulhasni Awang, known affectionately as “The Pocket Rocket”, because he did not have the physique typical of a track cyclist but was the bronze medallist behind the two Dutch riders at the 2020 World Championships. Kenny beat Awang to progress to the last 16, however, as did all the fancied riders. It was more of the same in the next round as the favourites all qualified, with the pick of the next races being between Kenny and Dmitriyev.

Kenny lost to Dmitriyev, and with it went the chance of retaining his title and that all-important ninth Olympic medal. Dmitriyev then beat Nicholas Paul to progress to the semi-finals where he was joined by the Netherlands pair Hoogland and Lavreysen. The last four was made up by Britain’s Jack Carlin. The two Dutch riders reached the final while Jack Catlin maintained Great Britain’s record of having won a sprint medal at every Olympic since Beijing 2008 when he beat Denis Dmitriyev over two races to win the bronze medal race.

The all-Dutch final required three races to decide which one of the two riders, Harrie Lavreysen or Jeffrey Hoogland, would take gold. Hoogland won the first race before a close second race saw Lavreysen level it, and in the deciding race, Lavreysen came from behind on the final run-in to the line to snatch victory and became the first Netherlands rider to win Olympic sprint gold since Jacques van Egmond at Los Angeles in 1932. It was also Lavreysen’s second gold of the Tokyo Games after being a member of the winning sprint team.