SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (Reuters) – Harrie Lavreysen closed in on his second gold medal of the Paris Olympics as the flying Dutchman easily qualified for the men’s sprint final later on Friday at the National Velodrome.
The 27-year-old reigning champion ended British sprinter Jack Carlin’s hopes of racing for gold with two comfortable wins in their semi-final heat, just as he did in Tokyo.
He will face big rival Matthew Richardson of Australia in the final after he beat Lavreysen’s Dutch team mate Jeffrey Hoogland 2-0 in their semi-final ride.
Carlin, who has 14 medals from major championships, but none of them gold, will face Hoogland for bronze.
Lavreysen and Hoogland took gold in the team sprint earlier in the week, beating Carlin’s British trio in the final, and Lavreysen is aiming for a sweep of the sprint events with the keirin, which he failed to win in Tokyo, also in his sights.
The women’s sprint also began in fast and furious fashion on Friday with Germany’s Lea Friedrich setting a world record in the 200 metres flying lap during qualification.
Once again the Olympic track proved to the liking of the sprinters as Canada’s Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell watched her world record mark of 10.154 seconds, set five years ago at altitude in Bolivia, beaten several times.
New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews, crowned keirin champion on Thursday, was the first to lower that with 10.108 before Friedrich took it down to 10.029.
Britain’s reigning world champion Emma Finucane, bidding for her third medal at the Games, also went lower than the old mark as she qualified second-quickest in 10.067.
The top 24 riders progressed to the first round heats where all the medal favourites moved safely through.
World records were also set this week in the women’s and men’s team sprints won by Britain and the Netherlands respectively while Australia broke the men’s team pursuit world record en route to the gold medal.
As well as the men’s sprint final, the women’s madison race also takes place later on Friday.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman)
