Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's sprint

The men's sprint event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 4 to 6 August 2021 at the Izu Velodrome. 30 cyclists from 18 nations competed.

Background

This will be the 27th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1912. Great Britain has won the last three sprint competitions.

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 2 qualified cyclists in the men's sprint. Qualification is entirely through the 2018–20 UCI nation rankings. The eight nations that qualify for the team sprint event may enter two cyclists each in the individual sprint (as well as the Keirin). The nations that qualify a cyclist through the Keirin rankings may also enter that cyclist in the sprint. Finally, seven places are allocated through the individual sprint rankings; these places must ensure that each of the five continents are represented. Because qualification was complete by the end of the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Competition format

For the first time since 2000, the sprint competition format is seeing significant changes. The number of main rounds is increasing from 5 to 6 and the number of repechages from 2 to 3. The competition begins, as usual, with a qualifying round of time trials (flying start 200 metres). The top 24 cyclists in the qualifying round (up from 18) qualify for match rounds. In each match round, the cyclists start side by side and must complete 3 laps of the track (750 metres). The last 200 metres are timed. The match rounds are as follows. Round 1 pairs the 24 cyclists into 12 heats; the winner of each advances to round 2 while the loser goes to the first repechage. The first repechage places the 12 cyclists into 4 heats of 3 cyclists each; the winner of each heat rejoins the round 1 winners in advancing to round 2 while the remaining cyclists are eliminated. Round 2 pairs the 16 cyclists into 8 heats; the winner of each advances to the 1/8 finals while the loser goes to the second repechage. The second repechage again has 4 heats, this time of 2 cyclists each; the winner of each rejoins the round 2 winners and advances to the 1/8 finals while the loser of each heat is eliminated. The 1/8 finals pairs the 12 cyclists into 6 heats; the winner of each advances to the quarterfinals while the loser goes to the third repechage. The third repechage has 2 heats of 3 cyclists each; the winner goes to the quarterfinals while all others are eliminated (the classification 9–12 race has been removed). The quarterfinals begins best-two-of-three matches; the 8 cyclists are paired into 4 quarterfinals. The winner of two races in each quarterfinal goes to the semifinals, while the loser is placed in the classification 5–8 race. The semifinals again uses best-two-of-three matches, with the 4 cyclists paired into 2 semifinals. The winner of each semifinal goes to the final, the loser goes to the bronze medal match. The finals round includes the final, bronze medal match, and classification 5–8 race. The final and bronze medal match are one-on-one, best-two-of-three in format; the classification 5–8 race is a single race of 4 cyclists.

Schedule All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Date Time Round 4 August 2021 15:3016:3517:3118:1318:47 Qualifying1/32 finals1/32 finals repechages1/16 finals1/16 finals repechages 5 August 2021 15:4816:2116:4518:27 1/8 finals1/8 finals repechagesQuarterfinalsClassification 5–8 6 August 2021 16:1018:00 SemifinalsFinal

Results Qualifying Rank Cyclist Nation Time Behind Notes 1 Jeffrey Hoogland 9.215 , OR 2 Harrie Lavreysen 9.215 +0.000 3 Jack Carlin 9.306 +0.091 4 Nicholas Paul 9.316 +0.101 5 Denis Dmitriev 9.331 +0.116 6 Jair Tjon En Fa 9.472 +0.257 7 Mateusz Rudyk 9.493 +0.278 8 Jason Kenny 9.510 +0.295 9 Yuta Wakimoto 9.518 +0.303 10 Sébastien Vigier 9.551 +0.336 11 Xu Chao 9.584 +0.369 12 Nick Wammes 9.587 +0.372 13 Stefan Bötticher 9.593 +0.378 14 Patryk Rajkowski 9.594 +0.379 15 Hugo Barrette 9.596 +0.381 16 Kevin Quintero 9.626 +0.411 17 Azizulhasni Awang 9.626 +0.411 18 Sam Webster 9.631 +0.416 19 Maximilian Levy 9.646 +0.431 20 Rayan Helal 9.669 +0.454 21 Matthew Richardson 9.685 +0.470 22 Nathan Hart 9.696 +0.481 23 Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom 9.700 +0.485 24 Ethan Mitchell 9.705 +0.490 25 Pavel Yakushevskiy 9.723 +0.508 26 Yudai Nitta 9.728 +0.513 27 Jean Spies 9.787 +0.572 28 Tomáš Bábek 9.856 +0.641 29 Sergey Ponomaryov 9.932 +0.717 30 Kwesi Browne 9.966 +0.751

1/32 finals Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Gap Notes 1 1 Jeffrey Hoogland X 1 2 Ethan Mitchell +0.233 2 1 Harrie Lavreysen X 2 2 Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom +0.063 3 1 Jack Carlin X 3 2 Nathan Hart +0.306 4 1 Nicholas Paul X 4 2 Matthew Richardson +0.618 5 1 Denis Dmitriev X 5 2 Rayan Helal +0.479 6 1 Maximilian Levy X 6 2 Jair Tjon En Fa +0.002 7 1 Sam Webster X 7 2 Mateusz Rudyk +0.180 8 1 Jason Kenny X 8 2 Azizulhasni Awang +0.032 9 1 Yuta Wakimoto X 9 2 Kevin Quintero +0.084 10 1 Sébastien Vigier X 10 2 Hugo Barrette +0.020 11 1 Patryk Rajkowski X 11 2 Xu Chao +0.291 12 1 Nick Wammes X 12 2 Stefan Bötticher +0.015

1/32 finals repechages Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Gap Notes 1 1 Azizulhasni Awang X 1 2 Kevin Quintero +0.204 1 3 Ethan Mitchell +0.549 2 1 Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom X 2 2 Hugo Barrette +0.619 2 3 Mateusz Rudyk +0.668 3 1 Jair Tjon En Fa X 3 2 Xu Chao +0.062 3 3 Nathan Hart +0.185 4 1 Stefan Bötticher X 4 2 Rayan Helal +0.032 4 3 Matthew Richardson +0.421

1/16 finals Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Gap Notes 1 1 Jeffrey Hoogland X 1 2 Stefan Bötticher +0.111 2 1 Harrie Lavreysen X 2 2 Jair Tjon En Fa +0.259 3 1 Jack Carlin X 3 2 Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom +0.132 4 1 Nicholas Paul X 4 2 Azizulhasni Awang +0.026 5 1 Denis Dmitriev X 5 2 Nick Wammes +0.107 6 1 Maximilian Levy X 6 2 Patryk Rajkowski +0.149 7 1 Sam Webster X 7 2 Sébastien Vigier +0.038 8 1 Jason Kenny X 8 2 Yuta Wakimoto +0.021

1/16 finals repechages Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Gap Notes 1 1 Yuta Wakimoto X 1 2 Stefan Bötticher +0.176 2 1 Sébastien Vigier X 2 2 Jair Tjon En Fa +0.085 3 1 Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom X 3 2 Patryk Rajkowski +0.260 4 1 Azizulhasni Awang X 4 2 Nick Wammes +0.104

1/8 finals Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Gap Notes 1 1 Jeffrey Hoogland X 1 2 Azizulhasni Awang +0.040 2 1 Harrie Lavreysen X 2 2 Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom +0.449 3 1 Jack Carlin X 3 2 Sébastien Vigier +0.171 4 1 Nicholas Paul X 4 2 Yuta Wakimoto +0.457 5 1 Denis Dmitriev X 5 2 Jason Kenny +0.076 6 1 Maximilian Levy X 6 2 Sam Webster +0.132

1/8 finals repechages Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Gap Notes 1 1 Jason Kenny X 1 2 Azizulhasni Awang +0.042 1 3 Yuta Wakimoto +0.325 2 1 Sébastien Vigier X 2 2 Sam Webster +0.101 2 3 Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom +0.133

Quarterfinals Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Decider () Notes 1 1 Jeffrey Hoogland X X 1 2 Sébastien Vigier +2.440 +0.059 2 1 Harrie Lavreysen X X 2 2 Jason Kenny +0.047 +0.942 3 1 Jack Carlin X X 3 2 Maximilian Levy +2.507 +0.396 4 1 Denis Dmitriev +0.295 X X 4 2 Nicholas Paul X +4.383

Classification 5–8 Rank Cyclist Nation Gap 5 Maximilian Levy 6 Nicholas Paul +0.152 7 Sébastien Vigier +0.644 8 Jason Kenny +0.879

Semifinals Heat Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Decider () Notes 1 1 Jeffrey Hoogland X X 1 2 Denis Dmitriev +0.107 +0.010 2 1 Harrie Lavreysen X X 2 2 Jack Carlin +0.067 +0.042

Finals Rank Cyclist Nation Race 1 Race 2 Decider ()Gold medal final Harrie Lavreysen +0.012 X X Jeffrey Hoogland X +0.015 +0.208Bronze medal final Jack Carlin X X 4 Denis Dmitriev +0.486 +0.015

References