Omnium, Men

There was a change to the omnium in Tokyo. At Rio, it consisted of six endurance events over two days, now it was just four events, but over one gruelling day.

The omnium was much awaited as it contained some of the best endurance riders in the world including the 2019 and 2020 world omnium champions Campbell Stewart of New Zealand and France’s Benjamin Thomas. British bronze medallist from the last two World Championships, Ethan Hayter and Matthew Walls, were also in the field as was the 2012 Olympic champion, and Rio bronze medallist, Lasse Norman Hansen, fresh from his team pursuit silver in Tokyo. The defending Olympic champion Elia Viviani of Italy, and Netherlands’ Jan-Willem van Schip made up an already strong start list.

After the opening Scratch Race, Walls led by two points from Thomas with Van Schip a further two points behind. The same three riders occupied the top three paces in the newly added Tempo Race, with Van Schip first, Thomas second and Walls third, but the British rider retained the overall lead. The elimination race was won by Italy’s Viviani, but Matthew Walls still held a four-point overall lead over Van Schip going into the final race, the 100 km Points Race.

Walls took gold after finishing second in the final race, winning by 29 points from New Zealander Campbell Stewart, who pipped Viviani for the silver medal late in the race. Walls became first Briton to win the men’s omnium, and was also the winner of Britain’s 50th medal of the Tokyo Olympics, but more significantly, it was their first cycling gold medal of the Games.