Cyclists Aaron Gate and Campbell Stewart put in a huge effort in the strength-sapping men’s madison event and were decidedly unfortunate not to come away with a medal today.
The New Zealanders finished fourth with 33 points. Portugal won the 200-lap, 50km race with 55 points, followed by Italy with 47 and Denmark 44. Japan were fifth with 32.
There was some conjecture late in the race that the New Zealanders had put a lap on the field, which would have earned them 20 points and pushed them into gold medal calculations. But a review of the tape revealed that while they did lap some riders, they didn't pass enough of the key riders to be able to claim they’d lapped the field.
New Zealand were the only top team not to put a lap on the field and earned all their points in the sprints that occur every five laps.
They became more prominent as the race unfolded and Gate, in particular, seemed to put a lot of pressure on other riders through his speed and aggressive riding.
Gate said later that though they didn’t win a medal, they were proud of how they’d raced. “We were competing at a very high level. It just didn’t quite happen for us, but we were right in the mix,” he said.
The madison is so action-packed it’s extremely popular with spectators, but it’s doubtful if many can keep up with the action. With riders passing off to each other with a slingshot action, some teams trying to lap the field, other riders dropping off the back, crashes and repeated sprints, the action is non-stop.
Ellesse Andrews, already with gold and silver in her collection from Paris, continued her sizzling form in the women’s sprint, seemingly untroubled in working her way right through to tomorrow’s semi-finals, where she’ll face Briton Emma Finucane.
If she wins their best of three meeting, she’ll race for gold. If she loses, she’ll race for bronze.
Andrews seems to have most bases covered in the sprint – she is very fast and can come over the top on the last lap to claim a sprint victory. Or she can take the front earlier and muster such pace she can’t be caught. She has good tactical nous and clearly has a champion temperament.
Shaane Fulton was unfortunate to dip out of the sprint earlier. Fulton was shaded by Sophie Capewell of Britain in a photo finish. The margin on the line was a mere 0.004s.
Fulton was then eliminated in the repechage, but had done a lot to be proud of, including setting a personal best time in the sprint qualifying.
Sam Dakin lived to fight another day in the keirin. With two to advance, he finished fourth in his heat and had to look to progress via the repechage route.
Needing a top two finish in his repechage race, he squeezed into second and qualified to ride in the quarter-finals tomorrow.