Australian Matthew Richardson is into the Men’s Sprint final on his Olympic debut and will race the reigning Olympic champion and reigning five-time world champion Harrie Lavreysen from The Netherlands.

In the heavyweight bout of the track cycling program in Paris, Matthew will square off with Lavreysen in a best-of-three cat-and-mouse sprint from 2am AEST.

He won through to the final after beating Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland in straight sets in their semi-final showdown.

Hoogland went early in the first heat, winding up to top speed two laps from home but Matthew followed his wheel and timed his sprint to perfection by taking the honours right on the line.

In the second, he took control on the back straight of the final lap and recorded a commanding victory.

Kristina Clonan made it through to the round of 32 in the Women’s Sprint after qualifying in 11th place with a time of 10.310 seconds for the flying 200m.

Germany’s Lea Friedrich was one of three riders to break the world record in qualifying and ultimately finished with the fastest time of 10.029.

Kristina then came up against Dutchwoman Steffie van der Peet and moved to the next round with a well-executed move with a lap to go and acceleration in the back straight.

Reece Homfray