The quartet of Leigh Hoffman, Thomas Cornish, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer delivered across the qualifying, first round and finals to become the first Australian world champions in the men’s team sprint since 2012, a team Glaetzer was a member of with alongside Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland.
“I know how hard it is and it’s been a bit of a drought for us,” Glaetzer said. “I knew we had a lot of potential in this team but we were yet to be fully proven and yet to show the world what we are capable of.
“Super proud of the boys today – did a ripper job, every single one of them. Time to enjoy this one.”
Australia set the standard from their first ride, beating out favourites the Netherlands by posting the fastest time of 41.896 in qualifying, with Thomas Cornish riding third wheel alongside Hoffman and Richardson.
Glaetzer was brought in for the first round and the Australians upped the ante, stopping the clock at 41.630 to qualify first for the gold medal final alongside the Dutch.
In the gold medal final, it was Hoffman who proved to be the catalyst for rainbows, posting a blistering first lap time of 16.949 to Netherlands’ 17.468.
Richardson and Glaetzer then hung tough to hold the lead and pip the Dutch with a nail-biting 0.043 seconds margin.
The world championship-winning performance continues a stellar 2022 for the Australian Cycling Team sprint program, which has been buoyed by standout results from Richardson and Glaetzer.
“It felt so surreal to pull on that rainbow jersey on the podium,” Richardson said. “It didn’t really sink in until I looked down and saw the bands across my chest and the gold medal around my neck.
“We’ve wanted this for so long, you know, it’s been 10 years since Australia has won this title, so, for us it’s really special and I’m just so proud of the boys and what we did today.
“I think for me, the time on the boards today was definitely a surprise. I think we were capable of going under that 42-second mark that we said we wanted to at Commonwealth Games, but to go 41.6 and to be within touching distance of that world record is really special.
“It went basically exactly how we set it out in our pre-race strategy, control the first one (qualifying) a little bit more and then bring Matt G in and basically just start ripping some really fast team sprints.
“We just executed perfectly and I think we went beyond what we all thought was possible today.”
Chloe Moran was the other Australian in contention for a medal on the opening day, the endurance rider placing sixth in the women’s scratch race, with Italy’s Martina Fidanza taking out the sprint for the win in dominant style.
The Germans were on fire in the women’s team sprint, the star duo of Lea Friedrich and Emma Hinze bringing the race home in a world record time after China took the early lead from the first rider. Germany finished with a time of 45.967, bettering their time from the first round which had also set a world record.
The German team, which also includes Pauline Grabosch, has set the previous four world records in the three-women discipline, with the switch from the two-women version in 2020.
The 2022 UCI Track World Championships continues tonight on SBS On Demand, with finals action featuring a number of Australians in contention for the rainbow jersey and medals. Watch from 3.20am AEDT on SBS On Demand, with the event set to finish at 6.55am AEDT.
The Men’s and Women’s Team Pursuits blue-riband event sees Conor Leahy, James Moriarty, Sam Welsford and Kell O’Brien go for bronze, while Georgia Baker, Alex Manly, Maeve Plouffe, Chloe Moran and Ruby Roseman-Gannon will aim to make the finals after qualifying fourth fastest.
The Men’s Keirin sees Matthew Glaetzer, Tom Cornish and Matthew Richardson in contention, with Joshua Duffy in the Men’s Scratch Race, and Ruby Roseman-Gannon in the Women’s Elimination.
