GB’s Finucane takes keirin bronze for second medal

Great Britain’s Emma Finucane took bronze in the women’s keirin to win a “surreal” second medal of the Paris Olympics.

Finucane had been aiming to become the first British female athlete to win three golds in a single Games but had that bid for history ended when she finished behind winner Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand and Dutch silver medallist Hetty van de Wouw.

“I’m just living my little dream to be honest. I can’t believe it,” Finucane, who has another medal chance in the individual sprint, told BBC Sport.

“To get a bronze medal, it literally feels like gold to me because I left everything out there on the track.”

Katy Marchant, who like Finucane was part of the team sprint gold-winning team earlier this week, came fourth.

Fellow Briton Ethan Hayter finished out of the medals in the men’s omnium, coming eighth in a four-race event won by France’s Benjamin Thomas. Portugal’s Iuri Leitao took silver and Belgium’s Fabio van den Bossche got the bronze.

In the day’s other action at the velodrome, Britain’s Jack Carlin qualified for the semi-finals of the men’s sprint but Hamish Turnbull was eliminated.

Finucane was grateful to even make the six-strong final after squeezing through her semi-final in third following a photo finish.

But, starting from the back once the derny – the motorbike that riders have to follow in the order they have drawn for the first three laps – left the track she moved quickly up the field, sitting second until she was pushed into third by Van de Wouw right at the end.

“It’s honestly so surreal,” she said.

“If you told me a year ago I’d be coming to the Olympics and getting a gold in track sprint and then bronze in keirin, I would’ve been like ‘no way’ but here I am.”

She was delighted that her family from Wales were in the packed velodrome to witness her latest success.

“That’s my whole family, they’ve come from Carmarthen. To look at them in the crowd and to see the union jack flags and their little faces supporting me whether I win or lose it’s about that,” she said.

“It’s about giving back to my family, them watching me with a smile on my face and I couldn’t have given any more today.”

Finucane’s third chance of a medal comes in the women’s sprint – an event in which she is the world champion. Qualifying for that starts on Friday, with the final on Sunday.

Hayter was back on the track less than 24 hours after his “whole body went weak” and he struggled to hold himself on the bike in the final lap of a pulsating team pursuit final, where Great Britain were beaten by Australia.

The 25-year-old, who is a double world champion in the event, had a slow start in cycling’s multi-race omnium.

He was 10th after the scratch and tempo races but had put himself into contention for a medal going into the final race by coming first in the elimination race to sit fifth.

But he could not build on that momentum in a thrilling 100-lap points race, where winner Thomas recovered from a fall towards the end to take gold in front of his boisterous home fans.

“Today I was on the backfoot and getting my head kicked in,” Hayter said.

“Definitely I didn’t want to be passive, it’s not my style. Normally I take it on and batter everyone’s heads in, that’s the style and then they start playing the game. I just wasn’t good.”

With Finucane’s bronze, Great Britain have kept up their record of winning a medal every day in the velodrome in Paris so far.

There are more chances to come, including for Carlin after he got a reprieve in the men’ sprint quarter-finals.

He had lost his opening race to Kaiya Ota and it had looked like he had also lost the second but the Japanese was relegated after being judged to have impeded the Briton. That put them into a decider, which Carlin won in another feisty race.

He will face Dutch defending champion Harrie Lavreysen – who beat Carlin in the Tokyo 2020 semi-finals – on Friday for a place in the final later in the day.