Matthew Richardson may be the fastest man on a bicycle in history: but how quickly can he fly back from Japan to Scotland… and recover sufficiently to compete?

That’s the challenge facing the English sprinter and his coaches, following confirmation that he will be part of the Team England squad at this summer’s Commonwealth Games.

Last week, Japan’s keirin authorities published details of the expected international rider participation in Keirin World Series events through June and July. Richo has been listed to race at Tachikawa, in western Tokyo from Monday 27th July to Wednesday 29th.

But the Commies keirin competition gets underway at 4pm on Friday 31st July… a mere 9300km (5780 miles) away, in the Scottish city of Glasgow. The winner will race at least three times, four if he needs a repechage, in four hours.

And if Richardson is to defend the sprint title he won at the 2022 Games, he will be on track again for sprint qualifying shortly after 10am the following morning.

Pictured: Richardson winning gold (for Australia) at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (in London)

Richardson could theoretically fly out of Tokyo early on the Thursday morning: there’s a British Airways flight direct to London Heathrow at breakfast time, which could get him to Glasgow by 7pm – with almost a full day to recover.

Or there are overnight options via hubs like Dubai: he could even leave Tokyo as late as 00:05 on the Friday morning, if he was prepared to go straight from the runway at Glasgow airport to the boards of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

Regardless of the route he might choose, he would be looking at a total of 17 hours in the air, plus a stop-over of 2-3 hours.

The one consolation could be that flying westwards is generally much less taxing on the body than flying eastwards. But would it be enough to allow the world’s fastest cycling to compete at his best?

There are no such issues for the other two Keirin World Series riders eligible for the Commonwealth Games.

Joe Truman has also been named in the squad: but he gets an additional week of travel and recovery time after competing at Kishiwada.

And Ellesse Andrews has plenty of time to prepare the defence of her sprint and keirin titles, with her last commitment in July being at Ito Onsen from the 10th to the 12th.