 |
RIO DE JANEIRO – Bradley Wiggins fired Britain to track cycling team pursuit gold in a titanic final battle with Australia on Friday, etching his name as the most decorated British Olympian of all time.
Not only that but Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull broke the world record twice, smashing their own London 2012 mark and demolishing New Zealand earlier on as they reached the final.
Britain’s third consecutive Olympic title in the endurance event was never the forgone conclusion some expected it to be as the Australian quartet of Alexander Edmondson, Michael Hepburn, Sam Welsford and Jack Bobridge ran them close.
The Australians made a terrific start and were leading for three quarters of the 4,000m race before Britain roared back to win by 0.743 seconds in a time of 3:50.265.
Former Tour de France champion Wiggins, affectionately known as Lord Wiggo after receiving a Knighthood for his exploits, ran across the steeply banked track to celebrate his eighth Olympic medal, one more than Chris Hoy, with his wife Catherine.
A youthful Denmark took the bronze by comfortably outpacing New Zealand.
After Britain were beaten by Australia at the world championships in London this year, Wiggins promised that Britain would reverse the result in Rio.
He proved right.
“Training camps at altitude, early starts and late finishes. Cycling on Christmas Day. It was all for this and we’ve done it. These three guys here are amazing,” Wiggins told the BBC.
He returned to his track cycling roots to have one last shot at Olympic glory after winning the Tour de France and Olympic road time trial in 2012. Wiggins now has five golds, one silver and two bronzes, although fellow cyclist Hoy’s collection includes six golds.
The latest feat in his career earned him a word of praise from British Prime Minister Theresa May who said on Twitter: “Great day for @TeamGB at #Rio2016. Congratulations to our medal-winning athletes, especially our most decorated Olympian @OfficialWIGGINS.”
Despite ruption in the British Cycling camp in the lead-up to Rio, including Wiggins’ old mentor and team director Shane Sutton standing down after a discrimination controversy, Britain’s dominance on the boards continues.
They won seven of the 10 track cycling events in London and already have two here after two days, following the men’s team sprint triumph on Thursday when Jason Kenny took his Olympic gold-medal haul to four.
Kenny will be favourite for individual sprint gold on Saturday as will Britain’s team pursuit squad who set a new record in qualifying on Thursday.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Andrew Hay)
No comments:
Post a Comment