Campbell Stewart came into the men's omnium final at the Tokyo Olympics in seventh place.

Stewart had not even expected to be in the race until the day before, but her hopes of a Team Pursuit bronze medal quickly changed when she and the more experienced Aaron Gate fell on Wednesday. Gate broke his collarbone in a fall and was unable to line up for the omnium. [The race consisted of four races: scratch race, tempo race, elimination race, and points race, with the rider with the most accumulated points being the overall winner. Stewart entered the final race with 78 points, 36 points behind leader and gold medalist Matthew Walls (GBR) in seventh place and 32 points behind Jan Willem van Schip, the Dutch rider who started well and was in silver medal position after the third race.

"When I met Walls, he was top-notch and I had to chase him from behind. He had a good enough margin, but once I could smell the silver and bronze, I really went for it and tried to play my cards right."

As the race progressed, Walls solidified his position for the gold medal, but the other medals switched places: with eight laps to go in the 100-lap race, Italy's Elia Viviani took the silver medal and Stewart dropped to fifth place. New Zealand's Stewart was then overtaken and passed by Alberto Torres (Spain) and Niklas Larsen (Denmark). Stewart doubled his points in the final sprint to take the silver medal.

"There was another gear there, and I surprised myself today how deep I had to go to get there," Stewart said.

In the team pursuit, Stewart's New Zealand foursome had a good shot at a medal, and gold did not seem out of reach. However, after a thrilling battle with a pace that exceeded the world record, the Italians narrowly outpaced the New Zealanders and ultimately won the gold medal. Then, towards the end of the race, just as they were closing the gap on the Australian team, albeit only slightly, the gate collapsed and they were eliminated from the bronze medal race as well.

After such an experience in Team Pursuit, a medal in the Omnium could not have been more gratifying.

"I've been training for this for years. I've been training for five years, an extra year."

Stewart said it felt like his teammates were on the podium with him. That included original entrant Gates, who was on the sidelines with his arm wrapped in a sling, and Stewart was quick to give him a congratulatory hug.

"I could hear them yelling for me. That kept me going," Stewart said. 'I was running solo, but the support kept me going.'

New Zealand started Thursday without a medal in cycling, but Stewart's win gave them two medals. Earlier, in the women's keirin at the Izu Velodrome, 21-year-old Else Andrews scored a fast finish to give New Zealand one of its two silver medals.

Asked how it felt to win an Olympic medal, Andrews laughed, "Oh man, I'm crying. 'I won a silver medal for my country. I couldn't be more proud."