American defending champion Jennifer Valente overpowered the field to defend her women's omnium title in the final velodrome race of the Paris Olympics on Sunday.

Valente finished 13 points ahead of Poland's Daria Pikulik, with New Zealand's Ally Wollaston taking bronze, six points further back.

The omnium is one of track cycling's most unpredictable events, featuring four separate races -- the scratch, tempo, elimination, and points -- with riders collecting points in each.

Valente timed the opening 30-lap scratch race to perfection, pulling clear on the final stretch to take the maximum 40 points ahead of Canada's Maggie Coles-Lyster.

Irish rider Lara Gillespie seized the initiative in the tempo, finishing first.

But Valente kept her overall lead, eight points clear of Australia's Georgia Baker and 18 ahead of Coles-Lyster.

The 29-year-old then won an energy-sapping elimination race, with Baker second and Coles-Lyster third to take a 10-point advantage into the final 80-lap race where she made no mistakes.

Valente upset then-world champion Yumi Kajihara of Japan to become the first American woman to win an Olympic track cycling gold medal at Tokyo three years ago.

Since then, she has asserted herself as the woman to beat in the omnium, winning back-to-back world titles in 2022 and 2023.

Dutch Cyclist Lavreysen Wins Men's Olympic Keirin Gold

Dutch star Harrie Lavreysen surged to the men's Olympic keirin title on Sunday to end British dominance of an event they had won at every Olympics since 2008.

The 27-year-old edged Australia's Matthew Richardson by 0.056 secs for his third gold in Paris. Another Australian, Matthew Glaetzer, won the bronze.

It was the third gold of the Games for the irrepressible Lavreysen after claiming the sprint and team sprint titles.

The win snapped a long British stranglehold that saw Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny win the last four golds.

With both retired, their successors Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull fell short.

Carlin came fifth but Turnbull suffered a nasty crash in the semi-finals, colliding with Germany's Luca Spiegel in an accident that left both men lying dazed on the track.

In a shock, Colombia's reigning world champion Kevin Quintero was eliminated in the quarter-finals, as was Dutch former world silver medallist Jeffrey Hoogland.

Invented in Japan in 1948, the keirin involves riders lurking behind a motorised pacemaker before exploding in a sprint to the line over the last three laps.

Glaetzer was the first to make the move with Richardson following, but Lavreysen's stunning burst of speed in the final lap saw him home.

New Zealand Cyclist Andrews Wins Women's Olympic Sprint Gold

New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews blasted to the women's Olympic sprint title at the Paris velodrome on Sunday to go with her keirin gold medal.

The 21-year-old easily outgunned German world record holder Lea Friedrich 2-0 in the best-of-three final to claim her country's first sprint gold since it was added to the Olympic programme in 2008.

British world champion Emma Finucane overpowered the Netherlands' Hetty van de Wouw 2-0 to take the bronze.

Andrews upset Finucane 2-0 in the semi-finals and was always in charge against Friedrich, winning the first race by 0.095 and the second even more comfortably with a 0.624 margin.

Canadian defending champion Kelsey Mitchell was eliminated in the quarter-finals, then came eighth in the race-off for the minor places.

Both Andrews and Friedrich have been in sizzling form in Paris, each smashing Mitchell's world record in qualifying.

Andrews achieved the feat first before Friedrich bettered it minutes later with a lightning-fast 10.029secs.