Bendigo’s Glenn O’Shea was poised to add to his Olympic medal tally in this morning’s finale to the six-event omnium at the track cycling in London.
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O’Shea was in the gold-medal position as he lined up for the 15km scratch race, the fifth event on the card, early this morning.
The reigning world champion led Great Britain’s Ed Clancy and Denmark’s Lasse Norman Hansen by two points.
A dramatic showdown was to be completed by the 1km time trial.
O’Shea won silver in Saturday morning’s team pursuit and joined swimmer Faith Leech, a gold medallist in the 4 x 100m freestyle at the ’56 Melbourne Olympics, and basketballer Kristi Harrower, silver at the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Games, in Bendigo’s “Olympic Medals Club”.
Despite an almighty effort, the Cyclones line-up of Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Michael Hepburn and Glenn O’Shea could not catch Team GB, which won the team pursuit in world record time.
O’Shea made a great start to his quest for Olympic gold in the omnium by being third in the flying 250m and achieved the same placing in the elimination. By the halfway mark of the ominium, O’Shea was third after an eighth placing in the 30km points race, but then jumped to top of the ladder after he was third fastest in the 4km individual pursuit behind Hansen and Clancy.
Points are awarded based on where riders finish in each event.
Lowest score wins gold.
Now based in Adelaide, O’Shea is a dual winner of the bankmecu-sponsored Bendigo Advertiser-WIN Television Sports Star of the Year award and the Bendigo International Madison track classic.
The 23-year-old has come a long way since his early days racing on Bendigo’s track and endured a roller-coaster run on the road and track.
Key players in his success have been parents Con and Jenny, siblings Shaun and Nicole, and long-time coach Tim Decker.
