Australia, Canada and Russia shared the spoils Tuesday as track cycling provided the first gold medals of the day.
Ryan Bayley earned Australia’s first sprint gold medal with a come-from-behind victory over world champion Theo Bos of the Netherlands.
His triumph in the best of three race series gave Australia their fourth cycling gold in Athens.
Lori-Ann Muenzer became the first Canadian to win an Olympic cycling gold medal when she triumphed on the track in the women’s sprint, aged 38. Russia’s Tamilla Abassova, 17 years Muenzer’s junior, took the silver and Anna Meares of Australia claimed bronze to add to the gold medal she won in the 500-metre time trial on Friday.
No Canadian woman had ever won a medal of any colour in the short history of Olympic track cycling. The Canadian men have won five but none of them were gold.
The Canadians had also never won a gold medal in either Olympic road racing or mountain biking.
Mikhail Ignatyev put Russia on the top step of the podium at the velodrome with a win in the men’s points race.
The 22-year-old Bayley downed Bos with an exhilarating final lap sprint to catch the Dutchman meters before the finish line.
German Rene Wolff won the bronze medal ride-off from Frenchman Laurent Gane.
The closest Australia had come to a men’s sprint gold was with Gary Niewand at Barcelona in 1992 behind German Jens Fiedler.
It was Australia’s fourth cycling gold medal in Athens and continues their best-ever showing in cycling at an Olympics. Sara Carrigan won the women’s road race and on the track Anna Meares won the women’s 500m time trial and Australia’s men won the team pursuit.
Bayley went for home a lap out in the first of the three-race final planning to catch out Bos, but the Dutchman sprinted quickly and nabbed him right on the finish line in 10.710sec for the flying last 200m.
The pressure was on the Australian in the second race and Bos looked to have the gold medal in his keeping when he pushed Bayley wide on the track and took off for home only to be caught on the finish line by a half-wheel in 10.661.
Bos looked to have again implemented the right tactics when he slipped under the Australian about one and a half laps from home but Bayley’s raw speed again proved trumps in a desperate charge to the finish line in 10.743.
Wolff needed just two races to beat two-time world French champion Laurent Gane for the bronze medal.
Teenager Wins Gold for Russia
• Mikhail Ignatyev, aged 19, gave Russia their first medal of the Olympic track cycling competition yesterday, winning gold in the men’s points race.
Defending Olympic champion Joan Llaneras of Spain took silver while veteran Guido Fulst, part of Germany’s victorious sprint team from the Barcelona and Sydney Games, won bronze.
Milton Wynants of Uruguay, a silver medallist in Sydney and at the world championships in May, could only manage ninth.
