TRACK

Plouffe, Leahy win individual pursuit silver and bronze at Birmingham 2022

31 Jul 2022 | 04:30 AMBy: Josh Davies
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A bittersweet individual pursuit silver medal for Maeve Plouffe was the highlight of a rollercoaster day for Australia at Lee Valley VeloPark.

Plouffe was simply unable to match the rapid pace of New Zealand's Bryony Botha in the gold medal final, who clocked a personal best time of 3:18.456 and a new Commonwealth Games record.

The Kiwi's gold medal winning time is the third occasion this year she has eclipsed the revered 3 minutes and 20 seconds barrier, an exclusive club home to only American Chloe Dygert, German Lisa Brennauer, Botha and Plouffe.

23-year-old Plouffe lamented her approach to the gold medal tussle post-race, but found solace in the fact time is on her side to make amends in the future.

"It's my first individual Commonwealth Games medal at my first Commonwealth Games at all so I am really happy to get a silver," Plouffe said.

"Obviously I would have liked to go a lot faster there, that was a really disappointing ride.

"But I'm happy just to be here and I really definitely am feeling the love from all of Australia at the moment.

"I'm still 23 and I'm still really young, still early in this sport and I hope I can come back next Commonwealth Games and get that gold."

The Commonwealth Games debutant said her second 3000m individual pursuit of the day had taken its toll on her, especially after expending an enormous amount of energy in Australia's gold medal winning team pursuit performance 24 hours earlier.

"I rode a pretty hard race (qualifying) this morning and went out very fast, so today I was trying to be really conservative in the final," Plouffe said.

"Controlled, relaxed but I was bit too relaxed and in an individual pursuit where you have momentum and you have speed, has soon as you relax too much it is really hard to build on that gear so that's a learning that I'm taking for myself."

Plouffe was nearly joined by veteran road cycling professional Sarah Roy on the podium, who surprised many - including herself - to earn a spot in the individual pursuit bronze medal final in her first international track racing foray.

A shock track medal for the 36-year-old was not to be however, with diminutive Scot Neah Evans overcoming Roy by 3.029 seconds.

"It's hard not to feel disappointed when you have the opportunity to go for a bronze medal but I think in a few days or tomorrow I'll realise that is an achievement to come fourth," Roy said.

"It'd be nice to have got a medal and stand up there with Maeve, but yeah ... hopefully I can just improve from here and keep getting opportunities (on the track) after this."

Leahy adds second bronze to tally in individual pursuit

Western Australian Conor Leahy won his second bronze medal of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games the hard way, outlasting 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Charlie Tanfield to claim the final step on the podium.

Tanfield pushed Leahy right to the line in the 4000m individual pursuit and had the home crowd on the edge of their seat at the thought of the Englishman overturning a slender lead Leahy held for the majority of the race.

But Australia's three-time national individual pursuit champion and national record holder remained resolute, eventually stopping the clock at 4:09.311 to win by 1.112 seconds.

"I was much happier with that ride, I went out too hard in qualifying earlier in the day," Leahy said.

"Despite the time being marginally slower I was happy with how I rode the final.

"I've got the day off tomorrow now and will be looking forward to a short rest before the points race on Monday."

Richardson narrowly misses medals in chaotic keirin

Matthew Richardson came within centimetres of winning his second medal in two days at Birmingham 2022 in the keirin and was forced to settle for fourth in final.

The 23-year-old was visibly fatiguing as the night wore on in London, a consequence of pushing his body to the limit a day prior to win team sprint gold in national and Commonwealth Games record time alongside Leigh Hoffman and Matthew Glaetzer.

Richardson found himself caught at the back of the pack when the derny swung off the boards to mark three laps to go and was only able to start coming around his rivals on the bell lap.

Trinidad and Tobago's Nicholas Paul was the runaway gold medal winner, surging clear with no serious challenge ahead of Scotland's Jack Carlin in second and Malaysia's Shah Sahrom in third.

Glaetzer's hunt for a second consecutive keirin gold ended in awful fashion following a high speed crash in the first semi-final.

England's Joe Truman was the only other rider to go down in the incident, which looked to be caused by Glaetzer clipping the wheel of Carlin in the bend as the washing machine effect of the keirin began to take shape.

The Englishman was taken out of Lee Valley VeloPark by medical staff in a wheelchair while seeming to allude to a possible collarbone injury.

Glaetzer was able to walk back to the Australian pit area.

Commonwealth Games Australia medical staff will assess the impacts of the crash on the 29-year-old in the morning.

Kristina Clonan qualified fifth in the sprint to start Day 2 action, posting a time of 10.825 for her flying 200m.

The Queenslander's run through the draw came to an end at the quarter-final stage against Wales' Emma Finucane in a pulsating three-heat duel.

Main picture: Guy Swarbrick
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