Olympic Silver for Sam Welsford in Men’s Team Pursuit

Cycling: Men’s Team Pursuit

Athlete: Sam Welsford

Venue: Olympic Velodrome

Sam Welsford and the Australian men’s team pursuit have won an Olympic silver medal on Night 7 of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

It took a World Record time of 3:50.265min from Great Britain to edge the Australians – who represented by Welsford, Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn and Alex Edmondson crossed in 3:51.008 for second place.

With Great Britain breaking world records in qualifying for the gold medal ride, the Australians knew they would need to take the race out hard to the Brits in the final, and this was the strategy they adopted, opening up, nearly three quarters of a second lead in the early stages of the race, in an attempt to break their rivals.

Through the experience of Sir Bradley Wiggins and Ed Clancey, supported by Steven Burke and Owain Doull, the GB team rode a measured final in response and clawed back the Australian lead and had gained the initiative by the 3km mark, by which time Australia had lost Bobridge and were down to three riders to the line.

Australia fought on manfully, and produced a spirited burst to the line, as GB lost a rider late and had their third wheel momentarily disengaged in the closing two laps.

The race was ultimately won in the middle stages, with Australia turning on the pace in the second kilometre – clocking 55.377secs across this phase to nudge ahead. However, it came at a cost, as Bobridge couldn’t maintain the pace. As the Aussies slipped to a 56.486 split in the third kilometre, GB maintained a more consistent pace. They mitigated Australia’s hot lap, with a 55.773 of their own, before maintaining parity in the third, with 55.881 across the 1000m split to break the resolve of the Australian charge.

The medal represents a second consecutive Olympic silver for Australia, with the Aussies also taking second behind GB in London in 2012.

Great Britain further extended their World Record in claiming gold, with their time achieved with an average speed of 62.536km per hour.

The result for 20 year-old Sam Welsford caps a remarkable debut at Olympic level, with the Woodlands resident having also won a world championships title earlier in the year.