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Andrews sprints to women's keirin gold

Ellesse Andrews Paris Olympics track cycling
Ellesse Andrews picked up her second medal in Paris, winning gold in the women's keirin. PHOTO: THE NZ TEAM

Track cyclist Ellesse Andrews has become New Zealand's milestone medallist at the Paris Olympics.


Andrews powered to the gold medal in the women's keirin at the Saint-Quinten-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Thursday (Friday NZ Time). pocketing The NZ Team's 150th medal at the Summer Olympics.


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Drawing the No 1 spot, Andrews briefly gave up the lead to Mexico's Daniela Gaxiola Gonzalez as the pace bike exited with three laps remaining.


However, she quickly went back to the front, with Great Britain's Emma Finucane challenging her on the penultimate lap.


The 24-year-old was able to stay in front and pulled away on the last lap for a comfortable victory, ahead of Dutch rider Hetty van de Wouw by 0.062 seconds, with Finucane third.



For Andrews, it was her second medal in Paris, after claiming the silver with Rebecca Petch and Shaane Fulton in the women's team sprint earlier in the week, and third Olympic medal overall, having earned silver in the keirin in Tokyo.


New Zealand had 137 Summer Olympics medals (not including those claimed by New Zealanders for Great Britain and Australasia in the 1900s) coming into Paris. NZ's current 13 medals has tied Seoul 1988 and London 2012 for the third-most at a single Games.


Earlier, Andrews also dominated her quarterfinal and semifinal rides.


She comfortably finished in the first four to advance from the quarters, then leading from the front to win her semifinal by 0.104 seconds, with Petch finishing fifth and dipping out to the race for seventh.


Petch, who finished comfortably third in her quarterfinal, was sixth of six riders in the B final for 12th overall.



Meanwhile, Aaron Gate has finished fifth in the four-discipline men's omnium on Thursday in Paris.


Gate finished ninth in the scratch race, eighth in the tempo race, 11th in the elimination race and fourth in the points race to be fifth overall, just eight points away from the bronze medal in his favoured event.


Sitting ninth overall after both races one and two, the New Zealand flagbearer had a disappointing result in the elimination race, getting boxed in on the inside line as the pace picked up a notch.


Despite his best finish in the points race, his 53 points could not make up the gap from the first three races. French favourite Benjamin Thomas won a popular gold medal, 41 points ahead of Gate.

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