Ellesse Andrews has made the rest of the women's sprint field look ordinary on the final day of the Paris Olympics.
Andrews went undefeated on her way to her second gold medal and third medal overall at the Saint-Quinten-en-Yvelines Velodrome, dominating German Lea Friedrich in the women's sprint final on Sunday.
LATEST HEADLINES:
An hour later, in the final event of the track programme, Ally Wollaston brought down the curtain on New Zealand's participation in Paris, earning a bronze medal in the four-race women's omnium.
That brought New Zealand's medal total to 20, tying Tokyo 2020 for the most, while Andrews' gold was The NZ Team's 10th in Paris, beating Los Angeles 1984 (eight) for most at a single Games.
New Zealand finished with 10 gold, seven silver and three bronze, good for 11th on the medal table, bettered only by the eighth-placing in Los Angeles.
Andrews led out the first race in the final, holding off Friedrich, who set a new world record in qualifying for the event.
The 24-year-old went around Friedrich just after getting the bell in the second race and there was no fight from the German down the back straight as Andrews cruised to the gold.
Andrews joined canoe sprinter Lisa Carrington in collecting three medals in Paris, after also winning gold in the women's keirin and silver in the women's team sprint with Shaane Fulton and Rebecca Petch earlier in the week.
“To win one medal, let alone three, would have been unbelievable," said Andrews.
“I knew we were in good form coming here, but you never know how everyone else is going. It’s a matter of getting out there and controlling what you can control.”
Andrews said it was particularly special having her father, Jon, in Paris as the team sprint coach.
The Cambridge-based rider joined Carrington and Alicia Hoskin, swimmer Danyon Loader, canoe sprinters Ian Ferguson, Paul McDonald and Alan Thompson and middle-distance runner Peter Snell as the only New Zealanders to win more than one gold at a single Olympics.
She now has four Olympic medals, having earned silver in the women's keirin in Tokyo three years ago, putting her sixth on New Zealand's all-time medal table.
Andrews, whose keirin gold was New Zealand's 150th Summer Olympics medal, had earlier defeated Great Britain's Emma Finucane in a pair of close races in the semifinals, winning by 0.096 and 0.050 seconds.
Wollaston surged to bronze by taking two laps - and 40 points - on the field in the points race, the last of four races in the omnium.
Sitting back in eighth overall, the 23-year-old picked up her first lap in the middle stages to get back into medal contention, then took off again, gaining her second with less than 20 laps remaining to move into second.
As other riders also took second laps, Wollaston dropped to third but picked up points on the final double-points sprint to secure the bronze with 125 points, just 19 behind gold medal-winning American Jennifer Valente.
Earlier, it had looked like a poor result in the elimination race, where she was knocked out mid-race in 12th, would take her out of the medal hunt.
Wollaston was fifth of 22 riders after the scratch (fifth) and tempo (ninth) races, and dropped to eighth after the elimination. But she dug deep in the final race, pocketing her second medal in Paris, after claiming silver in the women's team pursuit with Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman and Nicole Shields.
In the men’s keirin, Kiwi Sam Dakin missed the final and finished eighth overall.
Having reached the quarterfinals through the repechage route, Dakin rode well in his first effort on Sunday. finishing second to ease into the semifinals in a race in which world champion Kevin Quintero of Colombia was eliminated.
In the semifinals, Dakin took on the field, starting his sprint early and attempting to hold on in the final lap, but could manage only fifth and bowed out of the competition as only the top-three reached the final.
In the race for seventh, the 27-year-old again took off early but was reeled in by Colombian Cristian Ortega on the back straight of the final lap, coasting home in second.
Meanwhile, New Zealand runner Camille French finished 60th in a testing women’s marathon on Sunday.
The 34-year-old had to contend with the draining Parisian heat and a demanding 5km uphill section mid-race.
She was near the front of the 92-strong field initially - 28th after 10km and 17th after 15km - but gradually slipped back as the race unfolded.
French finished in 2 hours 37 minutes 21 seconds, which was 14:26 behind the winner, Netherlands' Sifan Hassan, who won in a sprint finish from Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa.
Comments