By Martyn Herman and Geert De Clercq SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (Reuters) – Standing in the middle of a sweltering Olympic velodrome with his golden bounty hanging around his neck was perhaps the only time the Netherlands’ track cycling powerhouse Harrie Lavreysen looked troubled throughout the week. “Wow, these medals are heavy,” the 27-year-old told a clamour of reporters wanting to know exactly how he had reeled off a hat-trick of titles in such relentless fashion. Lavreysen was made to fight hard by Australia’s Matthew Richardson in Sunday’s keirin final but after accelerating at the sound of the last-lap bell he was never going to miss out on the only Olympic title missing from his collection.
The former BMX rider nicknamed The Beast had already propelled the Netherlands to gold in the team sprint and won the individual sprint — breaking the flying 200 metres lap world record just for good measure in the process. Sunday just underlined the fact that when it comes to the speed merchants of the track he is in a league of his own. “From the beginning I tried not to think about (gold) too much, I just took it day-by-day,” Lavreysen, whose five Olympic golds is a record for a male Dutch athlete, told reporters.
“I did put them in my bag to bring them here, but I thought it was better not to focus too much on the idea of winning three times. Today I had to start afresh, not think about this (gold) because that would have driven me crazy.” OLYMPIC H.