Day 3: Olympic Track Cycling - USA wins Women's Team Pursuit in style

The Olympic Games have seen a lot of action in the road and Mountain Biking events and the priority now shifts to the track. There has been a lot of thrilling action today, we summarize the events.

Day 3 of the Olympic track cycling schedule was kicked off by one of the oldest Olympic events, the men’s sprint. Home favourites Rayan Helal and Sebastian Vigier could not be separated, and both set times of 9.5 seconds, but were considerably off the pace in what was a record-breaking qualifying session.

First up, Australia’s Matthew Richardson smashed the world record with a time of 9.091. But his mark only lasted a matter of minutes, before Dutch favourite Harrie Lavreysen lowered the bar to 9.088. Could the 9 second barrier be under threat in Paris?

Trinidad and Tobago's Nicholas Paul, the former world record holder, posted the ninth fastest time, just behind Kaiya Ota of Japan.

In the next round of the men’s sprint, two riders took to the velodrome at a time in the ‘cat and mouse’ race. New world record holder Lavreysen comfortably defeated Germany’s Max Doernbach, whilst former world record holder (a record which stood for 2 minutes) Matthew Richardson also comfortably won his heat.

Lavreysen looks to be in flying form, and the Dutch fans will be hoping to see something special from their track cycling superstar tomorrow.

In what was a disappointing morning for the home fans, the French finally had something to cheer about when Rayan Helal defeated two Canadian riders, Tyler Rorke and Nick Wammes, with an almighty ride in the repechage round of the men’s sprint. The French have so far been unable to replicate their success from other cycling disciplines, on the track.

Into the third round of the men's individual sprint, and Lavreysen made short work of Helal, with Richardson following his Dutch rival through to the next round.

In the women’s keirin, the first heat was won by New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews, followed home by France’s Mathilde Gros to the delight of the home fans. Team GB’s Emma Finucane, who already has one gold medal to her name, safely navigated her heat to finish in front of Germany’s Lea Friedrich. Her teammate, Katy Marchant, will have to race again in the repechage round if she wishes to progress.

Early in the competition, New Zealand looked like they would threaten the world record but slowed on the final lap whilst defeating the Italian team comfortably. Team GB were left disappointed, as they were beaten by 0.279 seconds by the United States set up a gold medal battle with New Zealand in the final. Team GB were of course missing Katie Archibald, after she was ruled out of the games due to a freak accident in her garden.

In the bronze medal race, the Italians appeared to be in control with a lead of over a second up until the final kilometre. But with 250m to, Team GB moved into the lead as the Italians fell apart, and the winning margin was over 2.5 seconds, meaning there was over a 3.5 seconds swing within the final kilometre. 

The gold medal race, including Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner, saw further drama. The USA dominated throughout, but with 500m to go their third rider starting losing touch. But, try as they might, the New Zealand trio could not claw back the deficit, and took the silver medal 0.6 seconds behind. Had the USA not faltered in the final 500m, the world record would have surely fallen.

In the men's bronze medal race, Italy faced Denmark in a rematch of the Tokyo Olympics gold medal race. Denmark looked to be in control, before their third rider Bevort lost touch around the 2200m mark and the Italians rallied. Fillipo Ganna kept the tempo high, and Italy stormed to the brzone medal in 3:44.197.

There was more drama in the gold medal race. In what was a storming final, Australia led Team GB by just 0.168 seconds heading into the final lap. But with just 250 metres to go, Britain's Ethan Hayter fell from his saddle, ending Team GB's challenge. Impressively, he managed to not crash at 70 km/h, but Australia roared home to their first men's team pursuit Olympic title since Athens 2004. In an event that they once dominated, Team GB had to settle for silver.