GLASGOW: Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen maintained his stranglehold on track cycling’s sprint discipline as he made it five world titles in succession in the individual event on Monday.

The 26-year-old Olympic champion was in a league of his own again, comfortably beating Trinidad and Tobago’s Paul Nicholas to claim his second gold of this year’s UCI World Championships.

Having powered the Dutch to team sprint gold earlier in the meet and, with the keirin to come, he could leave Glasgow having matched the record 14 world titles of French sprint king Arnaud Tournant.

“I felt really strong this tournament and its taken a lot of energy and a lot of days of consecutive racing,” said Lavreysen, who hit a top speed of 74.5kph during the second heat of the final against Nicholas who was hardly hanging about.

“I hope I can keep this advantage going, I love to sprint,” he told.

Host nation Britain also enjoyed another impressive day at the Chris Hoy Velodrome to top the medals table.

Elinor Barker, who returned to the track this year after having a baby, claimed her second medal of the championships as she joined Neah Evans to win a typically chaotic Madison race.

Australia were runners-up with France third.

Earlier, Ethan Vernon picked himself up off the boards after a crash to win the elimination race meaning Britain’s Olympic squad top the medals table with four golds, two silvers and a bronze with two days of track action remaining.

In the 120-lap relay-style event, Britain’s madison duo of Barker and Evans were two laps from when a pile-up meant the race was neutralised as injured riders were attended to.

Race rules meant that nine laps were added on the restart and Britain suddenly came under attack from Australia and France but Barker ensured they crossed the line fourth to score the two points that sealed the gold medal.

“My legs are still screaming,” Barker said after adding the madison to the team pursuit gold she won last week. “We’d lined it up for the last sprint and I was empty. It felt a bit stressful to be honest.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s Kieran Reilly earlier claimed the hosts’ first gold of the championships winning the BMX Freestyle Park title.

European champion Reilly had a spectacular run to finish ahead of Olympic champion Logan Martin of Australia in the final.Martin, the last man to go after the competition resumed following a rain-delay, came up half a point short of Reilly’s winning score of 95.80.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2023