The finest margins have stood between Australia’s track cyclists and a first rainbow jersey at this year’s UCI World Championships in Glasgow as NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder Thomas Cornish won a silver medal as a member of Australia’s sprint team.

In the last event of the night, Cornish, along with Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer sought to defend Australia’s team sprint rainbow jerseys against the Dutch powerhouse.

Throughout the preliminary rounds, the Netherlands had stayed almost half a second quicker, and there was little sign the gold-medal final would be anything but a formality.

But the Aussies stepped up at just the right moment.

On lap one, Hoffman put his nation narrowly ahead. Richardson then carried the advantage on the second leg, handing over to Glaezter with a lead.

Again, Australians in the velodrome dared to dream.

But the Dutch clawed back the time on the ultimate lap, and to the naked eye there was nothing between the teams when they crossed the line on opposite sides of the track.

Only the stopwatch could separate them: Australia’s time of 41.682 seconds had been beaten by three one-hundredths of a second, the Dutch winning with a time of 41.647.

It was a disappointing blow, but to have pushed the Netherlands to such a fine margin spoke volumes about the determination of the Aussie team sprinters.

“To bring back half a second from first round to final is pretty much unheard of, so we really banded together for that final fight,” Richardson said.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get there in the end, but we really gave it our best shot.”

Australian Track coach Leigh Howard added, “We can’t be upset with our performance. Really, at the end of the day it didn’t go our way. But technically, that final ride, all of us would definitely say it’s perfect, really.”

Article courtesy of AusCycling

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