Portugal holds off Italy and Denmark to win the gold medal in the men's Madison

MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France (AP) — The team of Iúri Leitão and Rui Oliveira from Portugal won the final sprint in the men's Madison after a chaotic 200-lap race on Saturday, holding off Italy and defending champion Denmark to capture the gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

Leitão added the gold medal to the silver he won two days earlier in the omnium, pumping his fist in equal parts celebration and disbelief inside a packed Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines on the penultimate day of competition.

Leitão and Oliveira led the Italians and Danes by just two points going into the final sprint, which is worth double the amount the teams receive for the rest of the sprints every 10 laps. And with a big charge down the back stretch, they managed to sneak over the line in first place, giving them 55 points total and the title of Olympic champion.

The Italian team of Simone Consonni and Elia Viviani finished with 47 points to earn the silver medal, while the Danish duo of Michael Morkov and Niklas Larsen wound up with 41 points to round out the podium.

It was the second medal of the Paris Games for Consonni, who helped the Italians win bronze in the team pursuit. And it came one day after his sister, Chiara Consonni, teamed with Vittoria Guazzini to win the women's Madison competition.

The event gets its name from the venue where it originated — Madison Square Garden in New York. It is an endurance race in which teams accumulate points for winning intermediate sprints, and they can earn a 20-point bonus for gaining laps on the rest of the field. One rider is considered in the race at a time, though they can tag in their partner at any point.

Each of the three teams that landed on the podium gained a lap on the field.

The track cycling program Saturday at the Paris Games helped to set the stage for Sunday's finale, when Jennifer Valente of the U.S. will try to defend her omnium title, and medals will be decided in the women's sprint and the men's keirin.

In sprint heats, Ellesse Andrew of New Zealand sent defending Olympic champion Kelsey Mitchell of Canada into the last-chance races. Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell of Britain, who won team sprint gold earlier in the Paris Games, advanced into the quarterfinals, as did Lea Friedrich and Emma Hinze of Germany and Hetty van de Wouw of the Netherlands.

Mitchell left nothing to chance in the repechages, going straight to the front and winning it to survive into the quarterfinals.

The first of the five keirin heats became easier to get through when Azizulhasni Awang, the silver medalist at the Tokyo Games, was disqualified. He overtook the motorized pace bike, called a derny, before it left the track to begin the three-lap sprint.

The rest of the favorites, including two-time Olympic sprint champion Harrie Lavreysen — the bronze medalist in Tokyo — and his Dutch teammate Jeffrey Hoogland, made it through to Sunday's quarterfinals without any problems.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games