Great Britain won their 1,000th Olympics medal after they took silver in a thrilling men’s team pursuit final at Paris 2024 on Wednesday.
The British quartet of Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood, Dan Bigham and Ethan Vernon lost to Australia in the final, with less than three tenths separating the teams in the 4km race, until the last lap when Hayter lost control of his bike and Australia won by 2.327 seconds.
The silver is Great Britain’s 1000th medal at a Summer and Winter Olympics in the modern era, which began in 1896.
“We were so close. I could see it,” Hayter told the BBC, who will also ride in the omnium and madison event.
“The five laps at the end, I just really gave too much – my whole body went weak and I just couldn’t hold myself up on the bike any more. I don’t know how I stayed up.
“I’m sorry to these guys, but I think we gave everything and we can be proud of that silver medal.
“It was there for the taking for us today, and we kind of knew that. We went out there to get it but just came short in the end. It’s a shame.”
Australia last won the men’s team pursuit title in 2004 but Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welshford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien gave them gold in the velodrome.
It was very close throughout the race prior to Hayter’s late wobble but Britain had to settle for silver.
Britain win women’s team pursuit bronze
Great Britain also won bronze in the women’s team pursuit after coming from behind to beat Italy.
Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts narrowly missed out on a place in the gold medal ride-off earlier on in the day after being edged out by the USA, who went on to win gold from New Zealand.
It looked like Italy were going to take bronze as they were 1.3 seconds ahead of Britain with five laps to go but they were pulled back and lost by 2.579 seconds.
It’s the fourth consecutive medal for Team GB in the women’s team pursuit after they won gold in London 2012, Rio 2016 and silver in Tokyo three years ago.
Elinor Barker won her third Olympic medal in the women’s team pursuit
“There’s four of us here today but we’re a squad of more than that and we wouldn’t be here without the standard set by Katie [Archibald who is injured], by Meg, our reserve rider and by Neah Evans who didn’t make the squad,” said Barker, who will race in the madison later this week.
“We’re the ones that made it but only because we’ve been pushed by those others. Obviously, we’re thinking about Katie every single day and hoping her recovery is going well.”
Elsewhere, in track cycling, Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull secured places in the men’s individual sprint quarter-finals after getting through the early rounds.
Beckett suffers sailing misfortune
Micky Beckett can count himself among the most unfortunate athletes at the Olympics after agonisingly missing out on bronze when the dinghy medal race was abandoned.
Light wind conditions have plagued the regatta in Marseille, and the final race of the men’s dinghy had already been delayed from Tuesday before it was pushed back again to Wednesday afternoon.
Britain’s Beckett began the race in fourth but was looking almost certain of moving up to third place with his rivals floundering as they headed to the final mark only for officials to decide conditions had changed too much and call it off.
They started again around an hour later but this time the race turned into a nightmare for Beckett, who picked up three penalties and crossed the line last, relegating him to sixth overall.
Micky Beckett finished sixth overall in the Men’s dinghy
“I was coming second and I would have got the bronze medal and it was all looking pretty good,” said Beckett, who was competing in his first Olympics.
“Obviously to have that then taken away was pretty tough but I was like, ‘This is sport, this is sailing in particular, this does happen, reset’. And then we went in for the second attempt.
“I got penalised by the jury twice for rocking. It’s a really nuanced rule. I think in the last three years I’ve been penalised once, and in that race I got penalised twice for it. That’s something to think about in future.
“And that just spun me out the back of the fleet. And then I was in a position where I couldn’t really get back into it.
“It was incredibly light (winds), incredibly hot. Sailing isn’t normally that slow and boring to be honest, it’s normally a lot better than that. The race chewed me up and spat me out. It’s just a bit crushing. In time I’ll get over it.”
Racing was subsequently abandoned for the day, meaning Tokyo silver medallists John Gimson and Anna Burnet, who sit in third place in the mixed multihull, must wait for their medal race.
Conditions are expected to be better on Thursday, when Britain’s Ellie Aldridge will hope to challenge for gold in the women’s kitesurfing.
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