Team Sprint, Men

The last time Great Britain men had not won the team sprint tile was back at Athens in 2004, but the challenge of winning it a fourth consecutive time looked like being a tough one. That challenge was made tougher because the former GB coach, Mehdi Kordi, started working with the Netherlands squad in 2019. The Dutch were regarded as Britain’s biggest rivals, having won the team sprint gold medal at the last three UCI World Championships.

The reigning world record holders Netherlands set a new Olympic record 42.134 in qualifying with Team GB second, 0.97 behind, despite being up on their rivals after two or the three laps. The Netherlands trio consisted of Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Matthijs Büchli, while the British trio was made up of Ryan Owens, Jack Carlin, and Jason Kenny.

In their first-round heat Britain beat Germany with a time of 41.829 while Netherlands qualified fastest after beating Poland in another Olympic record 41.431 and, as the two fastest heat winners, Great Britain and Netherlands met for the gold medal while the two slowest, Australia and France went head-to-head for the bronze medal, which the Europeans won by 1.682 seconds. Day two on the track was also a double blow for Jason Kenny and his wife Laura, who both ended up winning silver on the same day.

Despite leading at the end of the first lap, the British trio were beaten by over three seconds as the Dutch trio of van den Berg, Lavreysen, and Jeffrey Hoogland, in for Büchli, won in a yet another Olympic record 41.369. The victory ended an 85-year wait for a male track gold medal for the Netherlands, with Arie Van Vliet being their last champion at Berlin in 1936, and in taking the Olympic title, Netherlands became the first reigning world champions since France in 2000 to also collect Olympic gold. Also, it was the first time the Dutch had won a team sprint medal of any colour.

Jason Kenny became the joint most decorated Briton of all time with his silver medal taking his total to eight, level with fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins and swimmer Henry Taylor, who won three of his medals at the 1906 Intercalated Games.