Tokyo 2020: Matt Walls and Ethan Hayter take madison silver

Team GB cyclists Matt Walls and Ethan Hayter have won the silver medal in the men’s madison event at the Tokyo Olympics.

It is Walls’ second medal of the Games, after taking gold in the men’s omnium, and it came shortly after Katie Archibald and Laura Kenny won gold in the women’s madison.

World champions Lasse Norman Hansen and Michael Morkov claimed gold for Denmark.

The madison is a 50km race, where points are awarded for 20 intermediate sprints. The British cyclists were in the gold-medal spot after 10 sprints, but their consistency began to fade as France, Belgian and Danish teams went on the attack.

With 30 laps to go, Walls and Hayter were headed for bronze as they trailed the French cyclists by nine points, but an attack by the Belgians and a breathless final sprint was enough to secure silver.

Walls said: “I was cooked at the halfway stage but we had a bit of gas at the end to finish it off.

“There were definitely some points in there we could have improved on but we haven’t rode together and we haven’t raced a madison in a long time, there was going to be some mistakes but we rode well and were feeling good.

“We came away with a silver so I’m pretty happy with it. It’s pretty great. It’s a shame we didn’t come away with gold, but yeah, we’re still happy to get silver. The Danes were just so strong today.”

Hayter said: “We set out on the front to try to get a bit of a head start. I think my legs started to go first.

“We were a lot closer to winning than I thought we would be. The Danes were the strongest pair, definitely. We did do some madison. I did some of the sessions with Katie and Laura in the academy, which was great.”

The medal is a Games-high sixth in cycling for Team GB, and it is possible that Jack Carlin and Jason Kenny could add more in the men’s keirin event.