{"id":47029,"date":"2025-08-06T05:05:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47029\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T05:05:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:05:19","slug":"defector-matthew-richardson-set-sights-on-breaking-world-record-nine-second-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/47029\/","title":{"rendered":"Defector Matthew Richardson set sights on breaking world record, nine-second barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Track cyclist Matthew Richardson, the athlete who sensationally announced after winning Olympic medals for Australia last year that he’d be defecting to represent Great Britain<\/a>, will next week aim to break a world record in “a rocket ship of a bike”.<\/p>\n

In fact, Richardson won’t only attempt to break the world record in the 200-metre flying start time trial in Turkey on August 14 \u2014 he has his sights set on cracking the elusive nine-second barrier.<\/p>\n

The British-born cyclist broke the world record when he clocked 9.091 seconds in qualifying at the Paris Olympics, but Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen then snatched the world record from him only a few minutes later<\/a>, ripping a 9.088.<\/p>\n

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In Turkey in March, Richardson encountered more misfortune in his pursuit to become the world record holder when he stopped the clock at 9.041, only for the UCI to rule the time ineligible<\/a> because he’d strayed into an out-of-bounds area.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old’s bid to break the nine-second mark next week will come on the same track, in the Turkish city of Konya.<\/p>\n

“Breaking the nine-second barrier would etch my name into the history of the sport,” Richardson said, per the British Cycling website.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

Matthew Richardson with the bike he will use in his attempt to break the nine-second barrier.\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

“It’s a milestone I’ve been chasing for years, so having the opportunity to go after it now is something truly special.<\/p>\n

“I’m also seeking redemption \u2014 coming so close earlier this year on this very track left unfinished business.<\/p>\n

“Regardless of the outcome, I know I’ve done everything in my power to prepare. I’m proud of the work I’ve put in, and I’m grateful to be surrounded by an incredible support team who’ve made this pursuit possible.”<\/p>\n

In an Instagram post, Richardson gave a nod to British Cycling and the engineers of the bike he will use in his sub-nine-second attempt.<\/p>\n

“Massive thanks to @britishcycling for their continued support, and for @hopetech and @renishawengineering for building what I can only describe as a rocket ship of a bike,” Richardson wrote.<\/p>\n

“Could it become the fastest track bike ever made? We’ll find out next week.”<\/p>\n

Richardson snared silver medals for Australia at the Paris Olympics in the sprint and keirin events, as well as a bronze in the team sprint.<\/p>\n

The Kent-born star then rocked the Australian cycling fraternity when he announced only days later that he’d be switching his allegiance to Great Britain.<\/p>\n

“When something like this happens, it really is deflation, and we are very shocked,” Australian cycling great Scott McGrory told Nine’s Today at the time.<\/p>\n

\"Matthew<\/p>\n

Matthew Richardson now represents Great Britain, having defected from Australia after the Paris 2024 Olympics.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

AusCycling announced in November last year that he was banned from ever representing Australia again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Richardson moved from the UK to Perth at the age of nine, before taking up cycling with Midland Cycling Club and later joining the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS).<\/p>\n

“Midway through my career now, I figured now’s probably a good time to do it [defect to Great Britain] if I was going to do it,” Richardson told the SBS last November.<\/p>\n

“And I thought I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t give it a crack and try to make the swap. So here I am.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Track cyclist Matthew Richardson, the athlete who sensationally announced after winning Olympic medals for Australia last year that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-47029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}