Just a moment ago, Lasse Norman Hansen won Denmark’s second gold medal of the 2012 Olympics in London.
The 20 year-old from Funen won in a dramatic finale of the men’s omnium in cycling, which is a six-part indoor race that took place in the Velodrome on Sunday evening.
In a race that is about gaining the least amount of points, Hansen’s 27 was just ahead of the 29 scored by Frenchman Bryan Coquard and the 31 by Edward Clancy of Great Britain.
Hansen finished fourth in the flying lap 250 meter time trial, second in the 30 km points race, twelfth in the elimination race, first in the 40 km individual pursuit, sixth in the 15 km scratch race and second in the 1 km time trial to finish top of the overall standings.
But things looked bad for Hansen as he crashed during the 15 km scratch race and was forced to battle back, scraped and bruised to somehow finish sixth and tied in first place before the last 1 km time trial event.
And Hansen showed poise by finishing second and ahead of his nearest competitors to win the gold.
Carsten Mogensen and Mathias Broe had sensationally beaten the world number one South Korean pair in the semifinals of the men’s badminton doubles, but couldn’t keep up with their Chinese opposition in the final, losing in straight sets, 16-21, 15-21.
Christinna Pedersen and Joachim Fischer had already won a bronze in the mixed doubles and with the men’s doubles silver today, Denmark won their first Olympic badminton medals since 1996 in Atlanta when Poul Erik Højer won the gold in the men’s singles.
Denmark’s third medal was silver in sailing after Jonas Høgh-Christensen finished second in the men’s Finns earlier today. But Høgh-Christensen felt like he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory after leading the race since day one, a week ago, before British sailing legend Ben Ainslie nicked the overall victory on the final day.
The win for Ainslie means that he surpasses Danish sailing icon Paul Elvstrøm in Olympic medal wins after winning four gold medals on the trot, to go with his bronze from Atlanta in 1996.
Denmark has now won eight medals in London 2012, better than Beijing in 2008 when they won seven.
