August 17/08 10:51 am - Beijing Olympics: Track Day 3 photos, report and full results

Posted by Editoress on 08/17/08
 

Beijing Olympics

Photos from the third day of racing at the Laoshan Velodrome.

Men's Sprint 1/16, 1/8 finals

Team Pursuit qualifying and round 1

Women's Individual Pursuit Final

Women's Sprint 1/8 finals

The third day of track competition saw the Brits continue their dominance on the boards. In the one medal final event - the women's Individual Pursuit - Great Britain finished 1-2, with world champion Rebecca Romero taking the gold and Wendy Houvenaghel the silver. Lesya Kalitovska of the Ukraine won the bronze medal over Alison Shanks of New Zealand.

Romero started fast in the 3000 metre race, and then cruised home to win in 3:28.321, well off Sarah Ulmer's record of 3:24.537, set at the Athens Games four years ago. Her winning margin was just over two seconds, but initially, she didn't realize that she had won, gesturing the question to support staff. Once she realized that she had, indeed, taken the gold medal, Romero pumped her fist and then headed to the rail to be mobbed by her family.

"Right now, I'm trying to hold it together; what an immense achievement. I had to search deep inside, and fight for this, and to do what I knew I was capable of. Wendy gave me a challenge all the way. We did it together, we filled the top two spots. Two years ago, we said it would be us two."

Three other events started in today's morning and afternoon sessions - the men's and women's Sprint competitions, and the Team Pursuit. In all three, either Olympic or World Records were set, all by British riders.

In the Flying 200 metre time trials for the sprint qualification, five men and four women all broke the existing Olympic records, with the top qualifiers both within a tenth of a second of the world record. Chris Hoy was the best for the men, with a time of 9.815 seconds, followed by his team mate Jason Kenny at 9.857 seconds. Theo Bos holds the world record at 9.772 seconds. Stefan Nimke (Germany), Kevin Sireau (France) and Mickael Bourgain (France) also went under the Olympic mark of 10.129 seconds, set by Gary Neiwand of Australia, back in Atlanta in 1996.

In the women's competition, Victoria Pendleton's 10.963 seconds was just outside the world record of 10.831 set by Olga Slyusareva (Russia) back in 1993, and well ahead of the Olympic mark of 11.212 set by Michelle Ferris (Australia), set in 1996. Guo Shuang (China), Anna Meares (Australia) and Willy Kanis (Netherlands) also broke the old Olympic record.

Once the racing started, there were a few surprises on the men's side, with defending champion Ryan Bayley (Australia), Nimke and Roberto Chiappa (Italy) all failing to make to tomorrow's quarter final round. Hoy, Kenny, Bos, Sireau, Bourgain, Teun Mulder (Netherlands), Max Levy (Germany) and Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia) will contest the quarterfinals. Awang is the only real new name among the remaining riders, and his blazing speed will make him a rider to watch for the future.

On the women's side, Pendleton, Guo, Meares, Kanis, Jennie Reed (USA), Clara Sanchez (France), Natalia Tsylinskaya (Belarus) and Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) advanced to the quarter finals tomorrow.

The final event of the day was the qualifying and first round of the Team Pursuit. In qualifying, Great Britain and New Zealand were the only teams to go under four minutes. But when it came to the first round, with the fastest two going on to race for gold, third and fourth to go for bronze and the rest to go home, the speeds picked up dramatically.

All four teams that move on to the medal round caught their opponents. Great Britain smashed the world record of 3:56.322, which they set at the world championships in March, by over a second - 3:55.205 . Denmark qualified second at 3:56.831, followed by New Zealand (3:57.536) and Australia (3:58.633), the defending Olympic champions.

Great Britain has said that they will not talk to the media until after the gold medal ride, however, Denmark has all but conceded the title. "We were very nervous," said team member Michael Moerkoev. "Because New Zealand was our biggest competition [for silver]. Great Britain is far away, way ahead."