Richardson briefly sets 200m world record, Clonan through in keirin

Matthew Richardson has (briefly) set a new world record on his way to the quarterfinals in the men's sprint, while Kristina Clonan also progressed safely in the women's keirin.

Men's Sprint

The first day of individual competition for the track sprinters began on Wednesday afternoon (Paris time) with the men's sprint qualifiers. At the start of the day, the flying 200-metre world record stood at 9.100 seconds, set by Nicholas Paul (TTO) in 2019.

Buoyed by their bronze medal in the team sprint, Richardson and Leigh Hoffman were in action for Australia, and both made excellent use of the fast conditions at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome.

Hoffman set a new Australian record of 9.242, which would ultimately be good enough for fourth overall.

However, when Richardson took to the track, he not only surpassed Hoffman's benchmark but also the world's best time, clocking in at a scorching 9.091.

But the West Australian's record would stand for only a few minutes. The last rider on track was defending Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen (NED), and the big Dutchman lowered the bar by three milliseconds, qualifying fastest in 9.088.

Later in the day, the two Australian men progressed smoothly through to the 1/8 finals, where Richardson comfortably bested Poland's Mateusz Rudyk to book his spot on tomorrow's schedule.

Hoffman, however, could not get the better of Japan's Kaiya Ota, and was forced to ride the three-up repechage. There, he led from the front but was beaten by another Japanese rider, Yuta Obara, marking the end of the South Australian's Paris 2024 Olympic campaign.

Richardson will face Obara in a best-of-three quarterfinal starting tonight at 6:00pm local time (2:00am AEST).

Women's Keirin

Clonan leading from the front in her repechage (David Davies / Getty Images)

Wednesday also saw the first day of Olympic competition for Queensland's Kristina Clonan, who lined up in the women's keirin.

Clonan had to progress through the repechage after bumping shoulders with China's Yufang Guo in the first round and finishing fourth.

The 26-year-old made no mistake in the repechage, controlling from the front and winning her heat to ensure she progressed safely to the quarterfinals. Clonan will be in action tonight from 5:18pm local time (1:18pm AEST).

Chloe Moran, who competed in Australia's team pursuit qualification, also took part in the keirin. She finished sixth in her first round and fifth in her repechage, ranking 23rd in the overall competition.

Feature photo: Jared C Tilton / Getty Images