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Flying Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen set a new world record in the men’s 200 metres flying lap as he topped the time sheets in qualification for the Olympic track cycling sprint on Wednesday. Another day of searing pace on the National Velodrome boards began with Australian Matthew Richardson first breaking the world record set by Trinidad and Tobago’s Paul Nicholas in 2019.
Richardson clocked 9.091 seconds to beat Nicholas’s existing mark of 9.100 set at high altitude in Bolivia. But he did not hold the record for long as the 27-year-old Lavreysen, fresh from his team sprint gold on Tuesday, bombed around the track to clock 9.088, averaging 79kph.
Lavreysen, nicknamed The Beast, is going for three golds at the Paris Games and is favourite for the sprint and keirin. The top 24 of the 30 riders qualified for the first round heats later where riders race against each other.
Extremely warm conditions inside the velodrome, together with slightly higher banking on the curves, have made for fast sprinting times. The Paris Olympic track has already seen a clutch of world records with both the men’s and women’s team sprints being won in new world record times while Australia’s men set a new team pursuit world record in the first round on Tuesday.
Australia will face Britain for gold in the men’s team pursuit final later while the women’s team pursuit gold will also be decided on the third day of action.
 WION news