Sign up for The Torch to receive email updates about all things Olympics - from Team GB and beyond After he was struck down by Covid in March, Matt Walls was unsure if he would be ready for the intensity of an Olympic Games.
But the Oldham cyclist answered those doubts emphatically in Tokyo by becoming Britain's first ever male Olympic omnium champion.
Walls secured Team GB’s first cycling gold at the Izu Velodrome with a fine performance as he beat New Zealand’s Campbell Stewart by a massive 24 points.
But it comes just five months on from testing positive for Covid, which left him off the bike for three weeks – long enough to slow preparation and derail a bid for gold. “It caused a bit of an unknown,” he admitted after a triumph
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