Berlin (AFP)
Frenchman Benjamin Thomas won the Olympic gold medal, an Olympic event, at the Track Cycling World Championships in Berlin on Saturday.
He is ahead of the Dutchman Jan Willem van Schip and the Briton Matthew Walls, at the end of the points race, the fourth and last test of this combined discipline.
Thomas was already world champion in the discipline in 2017 and vice-world champion last year.
The omnium is a discipline made up of four events: scratch, tempo, elimination and points race, in this order.
Thomas won the scratch, finished second in the tempo race and fourth in the elimination.
Arriving as leader on the last test, the points race (one sprint every ten laps), he mastered the tough fight throughout the 100 laps (25 km).
He knocked out his entry opponents by winning three of the first five sprints. He then found the strength to go against his direct rivals each time they tried to start.
He finally and above all managed to take a lap in the peloton, three laps from the finish, in the company of the Dutchman van Schip, which earned him a bonus of 20 points and the definitive insurance of world gold.
His track record is rich with another gold medal at the world championships, in American in 2017, associated with Morgan Kneisky.
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