IZU, Japan — Shanne Braspennincx of the Netherlands won the gold medal in the women’s keirin at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday, hours after teammate Laurine van Riessen was taken out of the Izu Velodrome on a stretcher following a horrific crash.
Braspennincx went to the front on the final lap of the six-lap keirin, where the first three are paced by a motorized bike and the last three are a free-for-all sprint to the finish. Braspennincx dived to the inside in the final two turns and held off New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews, who made a late charge on the outside to claim the silver medal.
Lauriane Genest, one of two Canadians in the finals, closely followed to take the bronze medal.
In the other medal event on a busy Thursday southwest of Tokyo, Britain’s Matthew Walls won the opening scratch race of the four-event omnium and was never really challenged the rest of the way in claiming the gold medal.
Walls finished third in the tempo race and second in the elimination race to take a narrow lead in points heading into the concluding points race. He immediately took a lap on the field, securing enough points to effectively lock up first place.
Campbell Stewart of New Zealand gained his second lap on the field just before the race concluded, sending him soaring from out of the medals to silver. Defending champion Elia Viviani of Italy fell to bronze.
The women’s keirin began with a wreck involving Laurine van Riessen of the Netherlands and Britain’s Katy Marchant.
The Dutch rider was trapped in the middle of the six-woman heat entering the final lap of the six-lap race. As she entered the first turn, van Riessen’s front wheel suddenly swerved to the right and took out Marchant, who had nowhere to go and landed on top of a pile of twisted bodies and carbon-fiber bikes.
Marchant was able to ride off but van Riessen remained motionless on the apron of the track. She was eventually loaded onto a backboard and taken from the velodrome, but was conscious before she was transferred to a Tokyo hospital.
“I felt like I was coming in at the right time,” Marchant said. “Wrong place, wrong time, I guess, but that’s bike racing.”
The last two world champs, Emma Hinze of Germany and Hong Kong’s Lee Wai Sze, were knocked out in the semifinals.
In the quarterfinals of the men’s sprint, world champion Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands cruised past two-time defending Olympic champion Jason Kenny in their best-of-three match. That sent Lavreysen to Friday’s semifinals while Kenny, who also took silver at the 2008 Beijing Games, failed to medal in his signature event.
Britain could still claim a fourth straight gold medal in the event after Jack Carlin knocked out Germany’s Maximilian Levy to advance. Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands beat France’s Sebastien Vigier and Russia’s Denis Dmitriev won a decider after Trinidad and Tobago’s Nicholas Paul was relegated from his win in their second race.
Carlin will face Lavreysen and Hoogland will take on Dmitriev for a spot in the finals.
“I’m feeling pretty strong,” Carlin said with a smile. “Feeling good.”
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