Olympics: Britain's cyclists reap gold, smash records

Tuesday 19 August 2008

BEIJING - Britain's team of track cycling stars continued to sweep up Olympic medals on Monday, smashing their own world record on their way to ending a 100-year wait for Olympic team pursuit gold.

The looks on the faces of Australia's squad, who with 10 medals including six gold were crowned the kings of the Athens velodrome in 2004, spoke volumes.

As Britain, with a time of 3min 53.314sec, claimed their fifth gold medal from seven finals and ninth medal of the 21 already awarded, Australia were left empty-handed.

They will be going quickly back to the drawing board ahead of the London Games in 2012.

"The Brits have the set the standard," said Australia's head coach Shayne Bannan. "It's been incredible to watch, and it has made a lot of teams sit up and take notice."

On the final day Tuesday, Britain have contenders in all three finals of the men's and women's sprint and the Madison, giving them a realistic chance of winning eight of the total 10 golds on offer.

Australia, though, will be hoping Anna Meares can make amends in the sprint after seeing the team pursuiters - champions in Athens four years ago- ousted for the bronze by New Zealand.

That reverse came a day after defending Olympic sprint champion Ryan Bayley was ousted from the early stages of the tournament, placing a big question mark over his future.

Britain's success has been put down to a track programme that was put in place nearly a decade ago, with Beijing - and London four years down the line - their favourite gold medal destinations.

Bannan admitted their dedicated team of specialists, who contrary to Australia have had plenty of time to work with their track stars, had done their jobs to perfection.

But he said even without millions of pounds of National Lottery funding, the Brits would be a formidable force.

"Even with half the budget, they would still get the same results," he added.

Scotland's Chris Hoy has a chance of adding sprint gold to those he won in the keirin and the team sprint, and could meet England's Jason Kenny in the final.

The 32-year-old from Edinburgh is not alone in aiming at a famous triple.

England's Bradley Wiggins, already Britain's most successful Olympic cyclist, added the team pursuit gold to the one he claimed when he defended his Olympic crown from Athens.

Describing the Madison as more of a lottery, there is no question what colour of medal Wiggins - who admitted he is getting greedy - has his eye on.

"We've kind of just been preparing for this all this year. Chris as well, he knew he was going for three," said Wiggins.

"I suppose you do get greedy in a way, but it's not wrong to be greedy when it comes to sport. All along, the focus has been three gold medals, so if we came away with one each we'd probably be a bit disappointed."

Englishwoman Victoria Pendleton is looking to add to everyone else's woes by grabbing gold in the women's sprint. The three-time world champion faces Willy Kanis of the Netherlands for a place in the final.

So far, there is only one track race in which Britain have failed to win a medal - the women's points race, won by Dutch phenomenon Marianne Vos.

England's Rebecca Romero had never competed in a points race, but the newly-crowned Olympic pursuit champion, a rowing silver medallist from the Athens Games, gave it her best shot.

"I'm glad that's over," she said after seeing Dutchwoman Marianne Vos step up to a podium that was 'Brit-free'.

"It was a bit of a daunting experience. I planned to use my pursuit training to the points (race). The trouble is, no one is going to give up in an Olympics race."