THREE-TIME Olympic medallist and former world champion Matthew Richardson will try to add something different to his glittering honours list this weekend – a British title.

Days after the end of a Paris Olympics at which he won two silver medals and a bronze, the 25-year-old caused a major stir by announcing a switch of allegiance from Australia to Great Britain – the country of his birth before his family moved when he was nine.

While it is common for elite riders in the British squad to skip the nationals, the new boy is eager to earn his stripes at the Manchester velodrome, where the nationals take place from Friday to Sunday.

“I’m pretty excited,” Richardson said. “It’s obviously quite new for myself, racing the British nationals…I used to watch them on YouTube and it seems like such a great event. Track cycling in the UK is a lot more watched than in Australia, a lot better supported.

“When I’ve raced nationals in the past in Australia, it’s a few people’s parents in the crowd and that’s it. It’s quite a big non-event. It’s always fun to race in front of a crowd.”

Richardson won seven Australian national titles between 2020 and 2024 – four individual sprint titles and three in the keirin.

He will aim for a clean sweep of sprint, keirin and team sprint this weekend, racing the latter alongside Harry Ledingham-Horn and Lyall Craig.

Given the headlines Richardson generated when he announced his switch, there will be plenty of eyes on him. He said he “broke the ice” of racing in a GB kit at the Champions League at the end of last year, but this is another step in his integration.

Cycling Australia’s frustration at Richardson’s defection and the handling of it was obvious as they responded with a lifetime ban – although they deemed a non-competition clause that could have seen him banned completely for two years unenforceable.

But while there was resentment within his old federation, Richardson said he had been welcomed back to his local club in Perth over the last few weeks – having posted pictures of himself training in his new GB kit.