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Great Britain were forced to settle for a hugely respectable silver medal in the men’s team pursuit final at the Paris Olympics, after Ethan Hayter slipping from his saddle in the dying moments handed Australia the gold medal.
Australia, who were the favourites for the win going into the event, narrowly missed their own world record, set 24 hours previously in the first round, but still did enough to edge ahead of Great Britain into first place and take gold.
The silver marked an 1,000th Olympic medal for Great Britain.
The Australian’s time of 3:42.067 was enough to secure the win, but they were pushed all the way by Dan Bigham, Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Vernon and Ethan Hayter.
After missing Tuesday’s first round due to injury, Bigham returned to the GB lineup, replacing Ollie Wood, with Tanfield keeping his place in the quartet.
The nail-biting final saw both teams bounce the lead back and forth between them as the race progressed. Eventually it was Australia that pushed in front, but only just.
Just as it appeared that GB were set to get back on terms, Hayter dramatically seemed to slip from his saddle in the final few hundred metres which all but confirmed Australia would come out on top and take gold.
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(Image credit: Getty Images)
Speaking afterwards, Hayter confirmed he had slipped from his bike and said GB could be “proud” after securing silver.
“We were so close,” Hayter said. “I gave too much. My whole body went weak and I couldn’t hold myself up on the bike anymore. I don’t know how I stayed up.
“Sorry to these guys, I think we gave everything… We’re super happy to win a silver but it was really there for the taking for us today. We knew that, we went out to get it and just came short in the end. It’s a shame.”
“We knew we had to try something a little different with our strategy tonight,” Tanfield added. “It was putting it on the line a bit. Ethan had an extra lap [more] than what was planned for. We went out very hot and got the most out of it that we could on the day.
“We were just unlucky at the end there with Ethan… it’s a silver medal at the Olympic Games though. If someone had said that to me before the games I would have still been like ‘wow, that’s amazing.'”
Meanwhile after winning the event at the Tokyo games three years ago, Italy won their bronze medal clash against Denmark to ensure they would complete the podium.
Denmark appeared to capitulate after a rapid start which meant that the Italian’s time of 3:44.197 was enough to land the bronze medal on offer.
GB women take bronze in team pursuit as Italians fade
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Great Britain put in a sensational ride to take the bronze medal in their clash with Italy, setting a time of 4:06.382 to secure a spot on the podium in the women’s team pursuit final.
The Italians appeared to fade after a huge effort in the first phase of the race which had narrowly pushed them ahead by 1.2 seconds. In the end a powerful ride from the Great Britain team, led by Josie Knight, meant that they turned it around and took the medal.
Winning bronze marked a successful Olympic debut for the duo of first timers at the games, Anna Morris and Jess Roberts. The team were racing without Katie Archibald, a two-time Olympic champion, after the Scottish rider fractured her leg in a freak accident just before the games.
Despite the disrupted build up and missing Archibald, the GB team qualified with ease on Tuesday before then setting a national record of 4:04.908 in the first round. It was still not enough to secure a spot in the battle for gold later on in the evening.
Nevertheless, the win for the women’s four marked a fourth medal in just three days in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome for Great Britain. GB took gold in the women’s team sprint final earlier this week before the men then followed that up with silver on Tuesday.
USA later took team pursuit gold with a time of 4:04.306 ahead of New Zealand. Winning on the track marked the second gold medal in just a matter of days for Kristen Faulkner after she triumphed in the women’s road race on Sunday.
Elsewhere Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull both qualified for Thursday’s sprint quarter finals after winning their respective ⅛ match ups on Wednesday. Turnbull saw off Israel’s Mikhail Yakolev before a photo finish declared Jack Carlin the winner in his clash with Trinidad and Tobago’s Nicholas Paul.
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