By Sean Miyaguchi,
Japanese track cyclist Kaiya Ota made a controversial exit from the Paris Olympic men's sprint competition Thursday as he lost a hot-tempered quarterfinal battle to Britain's Jack Carlin.
The pair bumped helmets and traded elbows during a best-of-three contest ultimately won by Carlin after judges overturned a race result that would have eliminated the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist.
Ota took the opening encounter by 0.046 seconds before also beating Carlin over the line in the second race, sparking victory celebrations from the Japanese rider and his supporters at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.
The jubilation was short-lived, however, with officials handing the race to Carlin and leaving the riders deadlocked at one win apiece after determining Ota had illegally crossed into the lower sprinter's lane.
The two were shoulder-to-shoulder over the final 250 meters of the deciding race, this time with Carlin appearing to veer out of the sprinter's lane on his way to beating Ota by 0.014.
Team Japan sought a review, but the judges once again came down on the side of the Scottish rider, allowing him to take his place in Friday's semifinals.
"I thought I could get to the medal rounds, but through my own naivety I didn't make it, which is really frustrating," said Ota.
"The judges look at the details and decide, so I don't really know, but I think I was relegated for getting too close to my opponent."
Japan head sprint coach Jason Niblett said Ota, who transitioned from keirin to match sprinting roughly two years ago, had been drawn into a tactical battle by the experienced Carlin that left him at the mercy of the judges.
"Ideally, I'm not in the position to have to fight with judges but the ruling is the ruling," the former Australian national team cyclist said. "Sometimes (the decision) goes our way, sometimes it doesn't."
Japan's Yuta Obara, meanwhile, was knocked out 2-0 in his sprint quarterfinal against Australian Matthew Richardson.
Japanese medal hope Mina Sato earlier made a surprise exit from the women's keirin after finishing fifth in her quarterfinal heat.
Aiming for her first Olympic podium, the 2021 and 2022 world championship silver medalist needed to finish in the top four of the heat to advance but could not close the gap with her final push from the outside.
Compatriot Riyu Ota finished ninth overall after going through to the semis but failing to reach the six-woman final won by New Zealand's Ellesse Andrews.
Japan's Kazushige Kuboki placed sixth in the men's omnium won in front of an ecstatic home crowd by Frenchman Benjamin Thomas, who posted a winning total of 164 points.
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