Matthew Richardson has smashed the world record for the flying 200m in the velodrome with a time of 8.941sec, becoming the first man to ever go under the nine-second barrier.
The Great Britain rider, who switched allegiances from Australia a year ago, was aiming to break the record of Harrie Lavreysen, whose time stood at 9.088sec. Lavreysen averaged 79.225kmh with his record, but Richardson broke it with a speed of 80.527kmh.
Speaking afterwards, he said, ‘I did it, I came here to do that [go sub-9 seconds] and that’s what I did, so it’s a pretty cool feeling to accomplish the one thing that I came out here to do. A bit of relief there. It was a lot faster [than I’ve previously ridden], I was basically just a passenger. I gave the bike a bit of direction and it was just steering itself almost. I rode of lot of it outside the sprint lane, so I know there’s a bit more there.’
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Richardson previously came close to obtaining the world record at the Nations Cup in March on the Konya Velodrome, but even then the 9.041sec would not have taken him under the elusive nine-second barrier. The successful attempt was completed today at the same track in Türkiye.
When speaking to the media before the attempt, he said, ‘What’s motivated me in general is to become the fastest track cyclist of all time. Records get beaten constantly but barriers stay with that person.’
Sinan Çelik (Cyclist Türkiye)
Richardson knew it would be a race between himself and Lavreysen to go below nine seconds. Both are decorated Olympic cyclists, with Lavreysen completing the gold medal triple in the sprint, team sprint and keirin in Paris and holding all the rainbow jerseys for his track events. Richardson won the silver medal in the sprint and keirin.
Sinan Çelik (Cyclist Türkiye)
He was one of three British riders aiming to claim world records today. 46-year-old Will Bjergfelt became the first para-cyclist to break the 50km barrier with his Hour Record attempt in the C5 classification. He did so with a distance of 51.471km, beating the long-standing marker of 47.569km set by Italy’s Andrea Tarlo in 2014. He said, ‘[I feel] amazing, it’s not quite sunk in yet really. Whilst I was going round the track and everyone was cheering at the end there, it started to hit home.’
Sinan Çelik (Cyclist Türkiye)
Before the attempt, he said, ‘I feel like I’ve done some incredible things since becoming a para-cyclist. I want to put out there that even if you do have an impairment or a slight disability that there’s so many amazing things you can do that it shouldn’t hold anyone back. If you want to do it, crack on and do it. I want to inspire people.’
Sinan Çelik (Cyclist Türkiye)
Charlie Tanfield was hoping to top Filippo Ganna’s record of 56.792km in the men’s Hour Record but came 3km short, riding 53.967km. It puts him seventh overall on the all-time list and the fourth-fastest Brit. Initially setting a tempo of around 16.5 seconds a lap, he covered 13.750km in just over 15 minutes but began to fade at the 43-minute mark.
