It was a close-run battle between the Australians and the New Zealanders in the early stages of the final ride for bronze, barely more than a tenth of a second either way in the early portion of the race.
Kell O'Brien, Sam Welsford, Luke Plapp and Leigh Howard made up the Australian team, with the injured Alex Porter left to watch from the centre of the velodrome. Former Australian Jordan Kerby lined up for New Zealand alongside Regan Gough, Campbell Stewart and Aaron Gate.
New Zealand upped the pace significantly just after the midpoint of the 4,000 metre race, surging to push their lead out to just over two tenths of a second when disaster struck. Aaron Gate was at the rear of the New Zealand squad but just overlapped his front wheel with Jordan Kerby's rear, as Kerby cornered he took out Gate and their night was essentially over.
“It couldn't have happened at a worse time,” Gough told Sky Sport New Zealand. “I was doing what you call a suicide turn and getting out of there, and I'd emptied everything I'd got and ejected, and then you hear a guy crash and have to continue.
“It's literally the worst thing that could have happened.”
Gough was split from a disintegrating New Zealand pace line, with the Australian team catching him with just over 500 metres to go in the race, triggering an early victory for bronze as they passed the third rider for the New Zealand team.
The Australians didn't overly celebrate, memories of their own crash with Alex Porter in qualifying still fresh in their minds, preventing the squad from a chance at riding for gold after equipment failure in qualifying saw the team require a restart with Porter nursing injuries.
After receiving their bronze medals, with Italy claiming gold over Denmark after a thrilling fightback to win with a new world record time of 3:42.032, the team talked about the rollercoaster of emotions since starting competition in Tokyo.
“Bit emotional, to be honest," said Kell O'Brien. "It's been a crazy few days for us and even more hectic five years, really. We've been through a lot together. We wanted gold. It’s what we came for. In some respects I think we can really hold our heads high. We had to win a bike race to get bronze just then.
"We’ve really shown what we can do as a team on and off the bike. It’s been a hard few days, and I’m just really proud to be a part of this group of guys. It’s just such a special moment for us, one I’ll remember for a really long time.”
The team were ruled out from riding for gold after Porter's crash on the first day, having to get a restart just 30 minutes later, eventually finishing fifth, with the rides for gold to be decided between the teams in the top four. Australia’s eventual bronze medal was the best they could do from that point, with the team agreeing that it felt like gold.
“Honestly, it does. With the rough start we had, you know, we went out today to see if we could get a medal that's almost worth gold from us," said Sam Welsford. "It's not the colour we wanted, but for us to be on the podium today after what we’ve been through is just as special, I think.”
Youngest member of the team at just 20, Lucas Plapp, echoed those sentiments.
“We got the absolute maximum out of what we could have in this competition with how it started," said Plapp, "so just thanks to the guys and thanks to the whole Australian team, everyone back home, big thank you. We gave it our best.”
Plapp will now head off to Europe to begin his stagiare stint with INEOS Grenadiers as he joins the premier WorldTour squad on the road. It may be a similar path for a number of other members of the team, with Kell O'Brien, Sam Welsford and former member Cameron Scott all very well credentialled on the road with Leigh Howard a former professional at WorldTour level as well.
