Great Britain storms into the velodrome with first gold and world record

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Aug. 5 () –

Great Britain claimed gold in the women’s team sprint event on Monday, the opening of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, setting a world record to beat New Zealand.

In the opening round of the track cycling competition, Emma Finucane, Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell won gold for Great Britain, the first British medal in this Olympic event, in a time of 45.186 seconds to beat New Zealand by five-tenths of a second.

The British trio topped the timesheets in qualifying, clocking 45.472, which narrowly beat the world record set by China at a national event in June. The Brits then beat that record in the first round en route to the final and a third time to become champions.

Great Britain was once again faster in the fight for gold than the New Zealanders. Germany, four-time world champions, beat the Netherlands in the bronze race, after winning silver in Tokyo 2020, with 45.400 to the Dutch’s 45.690.