Richardson and Bjergfelt set world records in Turkey but Tanfield misses out

British duo Matt Richardson and Will Bjergfelt both set world records in Turkey on Thursday.

Richardson became the first man to go under nine seconds in the 200m flying start, recording a time of 8.941sec at the Konya Velodrome. The 26-year-old, who switched allegiance from Australia to Britain in December, surpassed the previous record set by Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands.

Richardson said: “I did it. I came here to do that, and that’s what I did, so it’s a pretty cool feeling to accomplish the one thing that I came out here to do. A bit of relief there. It was a lot faster [than I’ve previously ridden], I was basically just a passenger. I gave the bike a bit of direction and it was just steering itself almost.”

Bjergfelt, meanwhile, broke the men’s C5 hour record, covering 51.471km in 60 minutes. Bjergfelt comfortably surpassed the previous mark of 47.569km, becoming the first para-cyclist to break the 50km barrier.

“I don’t think it’s quite hit home yet that I’ve smashed the world record on the track and that’s a dream come true,” said the 46-year-old.

Charlie Tanfield missed out on the men’s hour record, covering 53.967km to become the fourth fastest British rider behind Bradley Wiggins, Alex Dowsett and the national record holder, Dan Bigham (55.548km).