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MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France (AP) — Harrie Lavreysen will try to defend his Olympic sprint title against Matthew Richardson of Australia, who upset his Dutch countryman Jeffrey Hoogland in their semifinal, on Friday night at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Lavreysen, who beat Hoogland in the finals at the Tokyo Games three years ago, easily swept Jack Carlin of Britain in his semifinal match during the afternoon session of track cycling. Richardson also swept Hoogland in their best-of-three match.
Lavreysen has long been the dominant sprinter in the world, winning the last five world championships along with his Olympic title. He teamed with Hoogland and Roy van den Berg to win the team sprint at the Paris Games earlier this week.
Richardson also has a medal from Paris, picking up the team sprint bronze with his Australian teammates. But he has a big task ahead in Lavreysen, who swept him on the same track two years ago in the finals of the world championships.
Hoogland and Carlin will race for the bronze medal in the night session at the Olympic velodrome.
In the women’s 200-meter flying lap, which serves as the qualifier for the sprint competition, the world record was lowered twice Friday. Olympic keirin champion Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand covered the distance in 10.108 seconds before Lea Friedrich of Germany snatched it away, stopping the clock in 10.029 for an average speed of 44.6 mph (71.792 kph).
In fact, the top four riders in a velodrome that has been producing record times all week came inside the previous mark.
Andrews, Friedrich and the rest of the medal contenders, including reigning Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell of Canada, made it through their opening round of races with no trouble. Their next round of heats is Friday night.
Also on Friday night, medals will be decided in the women’s Madison, a tag-team race named for its originating venue — Madison Square Garden in New York — in which the teams try to accumulate points for sprints or lapping the field over 120 laps.
Catch up on the latest from Day 14 of the 2024 Paris Olympics:
- Boxing: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif will win either a gold or a silver medal when she fights Yang Liu of China in the final of the women’s welterweight division.
- Relay: 100-meter silver medalist Sha’Carri Richardson will lead the U.S. women’s relay team in 4×100-meter final.
- Soccer: France will face Spain in the final of the men’s soccer tournament, meaning there’ll be a European gold medalist at the Olympics for the first time in 32 years.
- Keep up: Follow along with our Olympics medal tracker and list of winners. Check out the Olympic schedule of events.
Only one rider is considered part of the race at a time, but they can tag in their partner at any point, usually by grabbing them by the wrist and slingshotting them forward. The result is organized chaos with a victor suddenly emerging at the end.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games