Australia’s world champion men’s sprinters have been dethroned in a sensational battle with their great Dutch rivals while Kristina Clonan has raced to time trial silver on the Glasgow track.
The trio of Leigh Hoffman, Matt Richardson and Matt Glaetzer, victorious in last year’s final at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in Paris, were this time beaten by the same Dutch threesome of Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland in a see-saw showdown at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome.
The arena named after one of the greatest sprinters in history witnessed another astonishing battle on Friday as the lead switched twice in just 41.647 thrilling seconds as the Netherlands regained their status as best in the world by a mere 0.035 sec.
Hoffman was outpaced over half of the first lap but roared back to pip van den Berg by 0.112 seconds when the 250m circuit was completed, an advantage that was cut to 0.042 as Commonwealth champ Richardson was pitted against his great rival, double Olympic gold medallist Lavreysen.
But in the final circuit, the Aussie lead was finally overhauled by a blistering lap from Hoogland, who was described by his teammate van den Berg as “the machine” for his sensational triumph over triple world champ Glaetzer.
“I looked at the scoreboard and I saw that we were a little behind, then we were in front, then we were behind,” said van den Berg. “It was a rollercoaster of emotions.”
“It feels good to have that jersey back,” added all-time great Lavreysen, part of the Dutch team that won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 and now able to celebrate a 12th world title.
Thomas Cornish, who had competed in the qualification round on Thursday, also ended with silver alongside his three Australian teammates.
Clonan, the only women’s sprinter in the Australian team, had earlier delivered the performance of her life as the penultimate rider in the 500m IP, clocking a personal best of 32.956 seconds as she roared into the gold-medal position at an average speed of 54.618kph over the two laps.
And she must have felt she was in with a glorious chance of lifting the title after German superstar Emma Hinze had, by her standards, a sluggish start in the final run, being 0.164sec down on the Sunshine Coast racer going into the last circuit.
But Hinze produced a startling turn of speed over the final lap, blasting to victory by 0.136 seconds as she stopped the clock at 32.820 to win her eighth world championship gold at the age of just 25, and her second of the championships after taking team sprint gold on Thursday.
The two silvers were Australias’ first in the cycling track program, though their para-cyclist teammates continued to thrive, taking their tally to five medals over the first two days of competition, while still waiting for the first gold.
Michael Shippley, the 31-year-old Queenslander who took bronze at the worlds last year, grabbed silver this time in the C4 time trial over 1km, while Blaxland’s Paralympic champ Amanda Reid annexed bronze in the C2 individual pursuit.