{"id":932719,"date":"2026-10-18T15:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932719\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T15:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T15:26:15","slug":"leigh-hoffman-wins-second-silver-at-uci-track-world-championships-harrie-lavreysen-wins-23rd-world-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/932719\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Hoffman wins second silver at UCI Track World Championships, Harrie Lavreysen wins 23rd world title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian cyclist Leigh Hoffman has claimed silver in the individual sprint at the UCI World Championships in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

Hoffman, who won the bronze medal at the world championships 12 months ago, was beaten by Dutch legend Harrie Lavreysen in the gold medal race.<\/p>\n

“To come away with a silver is still pretty amazing,” Hoffman told AusCycling.<\/p>\n

“But it is bitter sweet to be so close to getting a world title and having it slip away.”<\/p>\n

It was Australia and Hoffman’s second medal of the world championships, after the men’s team sprint squad won silver to the Netherlands on the first night<\/a> at the spectacular Shanghai Velodrome.<\/p>\n

Lavreysen won both sprints in the gold medal match, but there is little doubt that the 29-year-old five-time Olympic champion was still made to work for it.<\/p>\n

Hoffman was the fastest qualifier for the sprint, the South Australian laying down a stunning 9.285 for his flying 200m on Saturday, and progressed comfortably through to the final.<\/p>\n

\"Leigh<\/p>\n

Leigh Hoffman was always underdog against Harrie Lavreysen. (Reuters: Kacper Pempel)<\/p>\n

Leading off in their first match up, Hoffman appeared to be in control before briefly dipping off the racing line.<\/p>\n

That momentary lapse washed the Whyalla man’s speed and allowed Lavreysen to power past him in the home straight.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman made no mistake in the second race, leading from the front with brutal power to stay away and win a record-extending 23rd world title.<\/p>\n

“Obviously wanted to win it but just didn’t come away with it,” Hoffman said.<\/p>\n

“Lavreysen, he’s won 23 world titles so he’s got a ton of experience whereas for myself, that’s my first gold-silver [race] at world champs.”<\/p>\n

No rider has managed to beat Lavreysen in an individual sprint at a world championships since Australian Matthew Glaetzer won gold in 2018.<\/p>\n

But Hoffman showed once again that he is getting closer to becoming the first man to wrest the rainbow jersey from Lavreysen shoulders in almost a decade.<\/p>\n

“I had a lot of confidence going through the rounds yesterday and today,” Hoffman said.<\/p>\n

“Beating [Japan’s] Kaiya Ota in straight sets [in the semifinal], someone who has beaten me at the Olympics and beaten me at Copenhagen Worlds as well, it was good to get some runs on the board against him.”<\/p>\n

\"Leigh<\/p>\n

Leigh Hoffman got one over Japan’s Kaiya Ota in the semifinal. (Reuters: Kacper Pempel)<\/p>\n

Missing from the sprint field at these world championships was former Australian rider and world record holder in the flying 200m, Matt Richardson.<\/p>\n

Richardson was withdrawn from the British squad earlier in the week<\/a> over alleged misconduct, with the 27-year-old writing on social media that he both understood the seriousness of the allegations and would cooperate with any investigation.<\/p>\n

“I understand the seriousness of what has been raised in recent reports about my withdrawal from the 2026 UCI Track Cycling World Championships,” Richardson wrote.<\/p>\n

“British Cycling has said it looks into matters like this through its established procedures. I will cooperate fully with its processes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I assure everyone that I will do so properly, and appropriately and with contrition for the feelings of anyone who might be affected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Out of fairness to everyone involved, and on advice, like British Cycling, I will not be commenting further until any process is complete.”<\/p>\n

The UK-born, Perth-raised rider won three Olympic medals for Australia before switching allegiance to Great Britain after the 2024 Paris Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian cyclist Leigh Hoffman has claimed silver in the individual sprint at the UCI World Championships in Shanghai.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":932720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,280447,141694,499548,85,96099,138293,34222],"class_list":["post-932719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-harrie-lavreysen","tag-leigh-hoffman","tag-shanghai-2026","tag-sports","tag-sprint","tag-uci-track-world-championships","tag-velodrome"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932719","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=932719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}