Dutch trio of van den Berg, Lavreysen and Hoogland beat British to defend Olympic team sprint title
MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France (AP) — Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands defended their Olympic team sprint gold medal in style Tuesday night, easily beating the British trio of Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin while shattering their own world record set earlier in the evening.
The Dutch already had a big lead in the three-lap race when van den Berg swung off the front, and Lavreysen merely pushed the advantage out even more. By the time he moved out of the way, Hoogland was left to cruise to the finish line.
Their time of 40.949 seconds beat the mark of 41.191 that the Dutch set in their heat race against Canada.
The bronze medal went to Australia, which trailed the French team through two laps of their head-to-head race before anchor rider Matthew Glaetzer pulled back more than a tenth of a second on rival Rayan Helal to land on the podium.
The Netherlands knocked off its own Olympic record in qualifying Monday night, then lowered the world mark it set during its triumph in Tokyo in the heats. But that merely sent the trio of van den Berg, Lavreysen and Hoogland into the finals against their longtime nemesis Britain, pitting the two nations that have combined to win the last five gold medals.
It was never much of a contest for the gold medal this time.
The Dutch have dominated the team sprint since winning their first world title in 2018, and their gold at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines sets up what could be a memorable Paris Games for them. Lavreysen and Hoogland also are among the favorites in the sprint and keirin later in the week.
In other events on the second night of track cycling at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the Australian men’s pursuit team of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien not only routed reigning Olympic champion Italy in their heat race but took its world record on the way to a gold-medal showdown with Britain.
The Australians covered 4,000 meters in 3:40.730, more than a second faster than Italy’s winning time at the Tokyo Games.
The British, who had their streak of three straight Olympic titles snapped three years ago, subbed Charlie Tanfield into the lineup along with Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood and Ethan Vernon to face Denmark. The quartet trailed by more than a second at one point before rallying to win in 4:42.151 and advance to the gold-medal race Wednesday night.
In the women’s team pursuit, New Zealand nearly broke the world record with a stunning time of 4:04.679 in qualifying.
The Americans, who have new Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner and time trial bronze medalist Chloe Dygert in the lineup, qualified second. Two-time gold medalist Britain was third and reigning world champion Italy fourth.
The biggest surprise was Germany, the defending Olympic champion, which was fifth-fastest in qualifying and can do no better than bronze when the heat races and medal rounds take place Wednesday night.
“One thing I learned from the Olympics last time I was here (in Tokyo) is you never know what to expect,” New Zealand’s Bryony Botha said. “We are trying to be realistic and just follow our own process. It seems to be paying off.”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games