Article by Jackson Barrett and Josh Kempton, courtesy of The West Australian.
Perth’s Matthew Richardson might be the prince of the velodrome.
The gymnast-turned-cyclist finished 26th in Tokyo and has made a meteoric rise to become one of the most exciting athletes in the sport.
But after surging into the men’s sprint final on Saturday morning (AWST), Richardson came up against the man they call the King.
Richardson claimed silver — to go with his bronze from the team sprint earlier in the meet — beaten in a gold-medal showdown by Netherlands superstar and defending Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen.
The Dutch powerhouse claimed the first two of their best-of-three duels.
“I’m here for gold for sure, who isn’t? But I’m definitely going to hold my head high with silver,” Richardson said.
“The level of competition was just out of this world, so to fight until the very end, I just couldn’t be prouder.
“I wouldn’t say it’s intimidating, Harrie and I have had close battles for many years now. I’ve got a couple, he’s got more than me, but I know that it’s within my power to win the race.
“I just have to execute absolutely to a T and he probably has to make a couple of mistakes for me to get the win. When he doesn’t do that it makes it very hard.”
Richardson insisted after the race he wants to complete the set and claim a gold in the kieren — the final event of a track cycling meet that has proved fruitful for Australia.
“There can’t be a lot more to come when you are winning bronze and silver medals, there is only one more thing there is to achieve,” he said.
“I’ve got kieren over the next two days so there’s only one target on my mind and that’s gold medal in the kieren.
“Try and collect them all I guess, there’s already two, there’s only one left.”
The Midland Cycling Club product started from behind in the first heat and his brilliant closing speed fell just short of the Dutch rider, who held off the late charge to finish 0.024 seconds ahead.
The second heat saw the Australian open from the front, but his legendary opponent showed why he has proven unstoppable in recent years, taking a wide route before sitting in his slipstream and working his way around.
The performance puts an exclamation point on a period of ascent for Richardson, who was eliminated in the round of 32 in the same event in Tokyo.
A former gymnast who moved to Australia from the UK aged nine, he has gone from strength-to-strength in the period between the two Games, winning an individual silver and team gold at the 2022 world championships.
Earlier in the night, he sealed his shot at gold by winning his semifinal over the Netherlands’ Jeffrey Hoogland, ensuring he was at least guaranteed silver with a comprehensive 2-0 win over the Dutch rider.
Hoogland opted to start from the front in both heats, which proved an error as Richardson as showed off his brilliant closing speed to get over the line first.
