Jack Carlin overcame a scare to clinch an emotional bronze medal in the men's individual sprint.
The 27-year-old beat the Netherlands' Jeffery Hoogland to take back-to-back bronzes in the event and his second medal of Paris 2024.
After being pushed to a decider and handed a warning, Carlin immediately succumbed to tears after pipping Hoogland in the third race of three to take victory. Especially, having fractured his ankle back in April.
"It's been a tough couple of months after what happened in Canada, and I think the last three months have been probably the hardest of my career, trying to get back to health," he said.
“That last race was the quickest I have ever gone in the whole competition, it was incredible."
Carlin went down to reigning champion Harrie Lavreysen in his semi-final and was up against the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Hoogland in a fierce battle for bronze, the loser coming away with nothing.
A race to the best of three, Carlin took the first for himself, just 0.017 seconds in front of the Dutch rider in a tight finish.
Jack Carlin bringing home the bronze in the men's sprint 🥉
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 9, 2024
What a battle ⚔️#BBCOlympics #Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/GwrshOqSz9
An hour later and the two were back out to battle again, with Carlin knowing that if he took victory here, he would have bronze wrapped up.
But Hoogland would not give in that easily and clinched the second race by 0.049s.
It all came down to a final three laps. And drama was ready to play out.
With both riders taking the opening lap out slowly, it seemed that Carlin was making an attack when the two bikes collided on track.
A nervous wait to see if the race would be restarted, Carlin kept his cool and when it was, the Scot produced the performance of a life-time to take the third and final victory and put the bronze medal around his neck.
“I have raced a million times and just got it wrong," he said. "Jeffrey took it really well."
“He took his time and that is absolutely fair enough. When we came back, I knew I would go out at the front and he would finish fast, and he did.”
Sportsbeat 2024