Tokyo 2020 - Gold for Team GB as magnificent Matt Walls beats Elia Viviani and Campbell Stewart to omnium crown
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Updated 05/08/2021 at 12:40 GMT
"He’s had to wait around the last few days and watch his team-mates go before him and not come up with the goods winning golds. But this lad has just got up there and ridden well above his years," said Bradley Wiggins after seeing Walls end Team GB's wait for gold in the velodrome. You want it? We have it. Stream every Olympic event live on discovery+.
'Absolutely bossed it' - GB's Walls celebrates 'spectacular' omnium gold
Matt Walls won Britain’s first track cycling gold of the Tokyo Olympics with a dominant performance in the men’s omnium on Thursday.
The 23-year-old was consistent throughout the four-race event on Thursday, holding off defending champion Elia Viviani to take the title.
“What a spectacular race that was, and Britain has a new Olympic champion – 23-year-old Matthew Walls is the omnium champion,” said Bradley Wiggins from track-side moments after the race finish.
It chopped and changed the whole time for the medal placings, but not for the gold medal. He rode with such maturity.
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'Amazing, he's done it!' - Walls wins gold for Team GB in omnium
"This is a 23-year-old kid who’s been the European champion, he won the bronze medal in the last World Championships we had in March 2020, but now he’s the Olympic champion.
"He’s had to wait around the last few days and watch his team-mates go before him and not come up with the goods winning golds. But this lad has just got up there and ridden well above his years."
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Britain's Matthew Walls celebrates after winning the men's track cycling omnium points race during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Izu Velodrome in Izu, Japan, on August 5, 2021
Image credit: Getty Images
And two-time Olympic team pursuit gold medallist Jo Rowsell said that Walls’ performance was particularly impressive given the context of the Games so far for the British team.
“I absolutely loved that race, I’m so pleased for Matt Walls,” Rowsell told Carlton Kirby on Eurosport commentary.
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'It's unbelievable!' - GB's Walls reacts to stunning gold medal in omnium
“What a rollercoaster week it’s been for Team GB, particularly with the men’s endurance squad with all the drama in the team pursuit, all the wrong kinds of dramas.
“Matt Walls has come here as a specific bunch-race rider and we’re going to see him in the Madison as well later this week.
“But the omnium was his first target as an individual and this man has delivered.
On his own, pressure on him, and wow. I am over the moon for him.
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Britain's Matthew Walls celebrates after winning the men's track cycling omnium points race during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Izu Velodrome in Izu, Japan, on August 5, 2021
Image credit: Getty Images
Viviani had beaten Mark Cavendish to gold in Rio five years ago, but had no answer to Wells’ quality at the Izu Velodrome, with the Brit marshalling the Italian throughout the final points race.
And Viviani saw silver slip through his grasp inside the last lap when Campbell Stewart managed to get back on to take a lap on the pack to leapfrog into second place overall with the bell still ringing in his ears.
The British cycling squad have been the dominant force at the last two Olympics, but have picked up just three medals in the opening four days of racing in Tokyo, with Walls’ win the team’s solitary gold so far.
But Eurosport pundit Mark Cavendish says that the lack of medals isn't a sign of Team GB losing their touch.
"GB aren’t in decline, the rest of the world is stepping up," he told Reshmin Chowdhury in the Eurosport Cube.
The rest of the world are coming up. The speed that all of these nations are going at, it blows your mind.
"Great Britain were always the pioneers in new technologies and advancements to make the sport quicker. But as you advance the amount of things you can do get smaller, you can’t get the big gains you used to.”
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