Matthew Richardson has claimed a courageous silver in the Men’s Team Sprint, and in the process has won Australia its 50th Track Cycling Olympic medal.
Eleven years after he randomly answered a flier to ‘come and try’ the sport, the 25-year-old is now a two-time Olympic medallist after he also won Team Sprint bronze earlier in the week.
Matthew put up a brave fight in the final against Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen, a giant of the sport, with five world championships and now two Olympic gold medals.
Matthew’s medal was the first for Australia in the event since Shayne Perkins won bronze in London 2012.
“I put my best foot forward and didn’t leave anything out on the track, Harrie is a really tough opponent and one of the greatest sprinters we’ve ever seen so to be up so close to someone like that is still a great achievement,” Matthew said.
“He sets the benchmark for other riders to chase, it shows you what’s possible, and it’s easy to use him as a target in the future.
“I’ve got bronze and silver now so there’s one more to collect and that’s what I’m going to try to do in the Keirin (tomorrow).”
Matthew’s silver, and bronze in the Team Sprint with Matthew Glaetzer and Leigh Hoffman, and the Men’s Team Sprint claiming gold pushed the total number of medals in Australian Olympic track cycling history to 50.
After breaking the world record in qualifying, Matthew won through to the final with a straight sets win over Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland in their best-of-three showdown.
Now he said he was determined to ride on to Los Angeles 2028.
“It wasn’t that many years ago I was looking up at Harrie and in awe of the gap (between him) and everyone else, so to be within a few inches of beating him at the highest level is a great achievement for me and I’ll use this for motivation to come back stronger,” he said.
“If the body holds up I’ll be in LA for sure and giving it my best.”
In other events on the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome overnight, Georgia Baker and Alex Manly finished ninth in the Women’s Madison.
The Aussies snared points in the sprint at laps 60 and 20 and fought on, but Italy, which lapped the field, took gold from Great Britain and The Netherlands.
“It didn’t quite turn out the way we wanted it to, but we did the best we could and kept fighting all the way to the end,” Alex said.
“That’s the fastest Madison they’ve ever had so it was pretty crazy, the speed is so high and you don’t get a chance to recover but we did what we could.”
Kristina Clonan made it through to the round of 16 in the Women’s Sprint after beating Dutchwoman Steffie van der Peet in the round of 32.
She then lost to Germany’s Emma Hinze and went to the repechage where she progressed by beating France’s Taky Marie Divine Kouame.
Reece Homfray
