Tokyo Olympics: Jack Carlin celebrates winning mental ‘battle’ to claim sprint gold
Carlin let out a cry as he crossed the line, one of relief and emotion as much as celebration
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Your support makes all the difference.Jack Carlin had already won team sprint silver at the Tokyo Olympics, but it was Friday’s individual bronze which made the Scot tear up.
The 24-year-old beat Denis Dmitriev 2-0 to win his first individual Olympic medal, delivering on the tip given by Jason Kenny when he effectively handed over the title he had held since 2012 on Wednesday evening.
Carlin let out a cry as he crossed the line ahead of Dmitriev, one of relief and emotion as much as celebration.
It was not that this medal meant any more to Carlin than the team success shared with Jason Kenny and Ryan Owens but it did reward a more difficult journey.
“I would rather take a medal with the team, with the boys, every day of the week,” an emotional Carlin said afterwards. “I love the team side of it, I love winning with the team and celebrating with the team, but I think this was my own battle in my head.”
Carlin took sprint silver at the world championships in 2018, the same year he also had silver at the Commonwealth Games, but had been struggling in the event more recently.
He qualified only 19th at last year’s world championships and would not have been seen as a contender had the Games gone ahead last summer.
“I focused so heavily on the team,” he said. “I got given more of a focus in the last year with the pandemic. People have put belief into me.
“If anything it’s a relief to go home now and [see] every single one of the people who sank five years of their lives into it, I’m just the face of it. There’s so many others behind me. It’s nice to go home and celebrate with them.”
Though Carlin could not force his way into the final, beaten 2-0 by world champion Harrie Lavreysen in the semis, he saw off Dmitriev of the Russian Olympic Committee with relative ease.
The two went wheel to wheel on the bank in the first race but Carlin had the inside line and the power to win with relative ease.
He went long with his attack in the second, almost allowing Dmitriev to catch him but the 35-year-old former world champion no longer had the spark in his legs.
The two then watched on as Lavreysen – who beat both Carlin and Kenny in this competition – edged out fellow Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland in their deciding race to take gold.
Carlin will now refocus for the start of the keirin on Saturday, but will leave these Games with renewed belief as the Paris Games already come into focus.
“I’d have said, coming into this, the main event I wasn’t confident in was the sprint,” he said.
“I was more confident in the team sprint and keirin, just on past results and how I’ve fared in the sprint in the last couple of years. But the confidence is building.
“I’ll take a bit of time off after the keirin, switch my head off and come back fighting. There’s only three years this time, so I’ll get the head in the game and see what can happen next time round.”
Earlier Katy Marchant comfortably advanced to the 1/8 finals of the women’s sprint – showing form that suggested no lasting effects from her crash in the keirin a day earlier.
“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure how I was feeling this morning,” said Marchant, who broke her own British record with a time of 10.495seconds in qualifying, eighth fastest.
“I was still a little bit battered and bruised after yesterday. But the legs are feeling good. It’s just riding through the rounds now and hopefully after another night’s sleep tonight I’ll feel even better tomorrow.”