The King of the Track Sprint

On the fourth day of competition at the Olympic velodrome in Rio, only one set of medals was contested. Only one — but the most prestigious: the men’s individual sprint!

 

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFIHL1qTZDQ[/youtube]

 

Many famous sprinters took part, but the gold-medal final turned out to be all-British. The legendary Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner successfully came through every round and made up the gold-medal final pair.

 

 

It goes without saying that the two riders know each other well: together, as a team in Rio, they won the first track gold. Jason, however, is a living legend — the team sprint gold in Rio was his fourth, while Callum added his first to Scotland’s gold collection. So the favorite was, of course, Jason, and he lived up to it. True, Callum gave nothing away, but Jason still won without problems and, with five Olympic gold medals, equaled Sir Bradley Wiggins. We wouldn’t say that this achievement marked the end of the sprint king’s Olympic dreams — but more on that later. The bronze medal went to the Russian rider Denis Dmitriev, who also beat Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer without problems.

 

 

Besides this, the men’s omnium began on the fourth day, with three races held that only vaguely outlined the main contenders. The women’s individual sprint 1/16 finals also took place.

The omnium winner will be known the next day, while the women’s sprint is part of the program on the final day of the Olympics.

 

 

 

 

 

Featured image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

Inside post thumbnail image: Yuzuru SUNADA/www.yuzurusunada.com

 

Special thanks to the Japanese photographer Yuzuru SUNADA for permission to use his works in our publications.

 

 

 

 

 

Translated from Georgian with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic), reviewed by the Velorbola editors.