Australia’s Leigh Hoffman has expressed his sympathies for former teammate-turned-defector Matt Richardson after the Englishman was forced to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games following a nasty crash. Richardson won gold for Australia alongside Hoffman at the last Comm Games in 2022, as well as silver at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
He then dropped a bombshell just days after Paris when he announced he was switching allegiances to Great Britain because he was born in England. The Australian cycling team subsequently hit him with a lifetime ban from ever competing for the green and gold again.
Leigh Hoffman and Matt Richardson won gold together at the last Commonwealth Games in 2022 (L). Image: Getty
Richardson’s duel with his former Aussie teammates was set to be a huge clash at the Glasgow Games, but it was ruined by injury. Richardson was wiped out by Japanese rival Kento Suzuki during the kierin series on the eve of the Games. Matt White of Channel 7 labelled Suzuki’s actions as “appalling” after he appeared to deliberately take out Richardson, and the Japanese rider was disqualified as a result.
On Saturday night, Hoffman won gold in the match sprint event in Glasgow with Richardson absent. Hoffman set a Games record in 200m qualifying and then tore through the field in the final, beating Trinidad and Tobago’s Nicholas Paul two heats to nil.
Leigh Hoffman calls out ‘horrible, intentional’ act
Speaking afterwards, Hoffman put the rivalry with Richardson aside and said he felt for him. “It’s horrible, it was such a hard crash,” the Aussie champion said.
“His was definitely intentional, so I don’t know why that’s happened. It would have been great if he was here, I could see how I stack up against him, but we’ll have to see if he can beat my Commonwealth Games record, or I can beat it again next time.”
Kento Suzuki was disqualified for the incident with Matt Richardson. Image: Channel 7/Getty
Hoffman also led Australia to team sprint gold on Thursday night, which Richardson was formerly a member of. On that occasion Hoffman said: “It would have been great if he stayed in Australia, but his heart was obviously never always in it – so good riddance.”
Teammate Ryan Elliott joked about Hoffman: “We checked his passport for his lineage, so he’s good. (The rivalry with the British) has definitely grown a lot since the defection. Definitely it’s there (with) the defector himself. This one is sweet.”
