August 5/24 16:49 pm - World Records Fall as Track Cycling Begins in Paris

Posted by Editoress on 08/5/24
 

The first day of track competition at the Olympics saw multiple world and Olympic records fall at the velodrome in St-Quentin-en-Yveslines, including five times in the Women's Team Sprint. Great Britain won the only gold medal awarded for the day in the Women's Team Sprint, breaking the world record all three times they rode. New Zealand took silver and Germany bronze.

The Women's Team Sprint ran under a new format, with three riders instead of the two in previous Games - the world championships has had three riders for three years. Canada, with the team of Sarah Orban, Lauriane Genest and Kelsey Mitchell had their best ride in Round 1, setting a new Canadian record and personal best time of 46.816 seconds. They could not match that in the final round and finished eighth overall. China, who had won the previous two Olympic titles with two riders, could only manage sixth overall. In the gold medal ride, the Brits set a new world and Olympic record time of 45.186 seconds, to finish just under half a second ahead of New Zealand. Germany just held off the Netherlands for bronze.

"We wanted to hit a PB [personal best] and see how our legs were feeling," said Mitchell. "We did that, and are happy with it, but obviously we can see how far away we are from the rest of the world if we want to be competitive, so we definitely have to step up in the team events. The individual events [Sprint and Keirin] are definitely the goals, where we have medal potential, so that's the focus, but it was exciting to have a Team Sprint here because we weren't able to qualify one in Tokyo."

Sarah Orban. the opening rider for Canada, is at her first Olympics. "I think there's a lot of emotions, but overall good ones. It's incredible to be here, it's been a long journey, but I did it. Our goal today was to just leave it all out there. There's been a lot of work that's been put in. We're prepared, so it was just a matter of staying focussed and getting the job done."

About the new national record, Orban stated, "I think it's exciting to see what the future holds for our team; we have a lot more in us, a lot more to give. It instills a lot of confidence in us that we can do it. I'll be in the stands now, cheering [Mitchell and Genest] on; I'm still the spare, so I'll be there if needed."

Both men's team events held their qualifying rounds on the opening day as well. Canada (Nick Wammes, James Hedgcock and Tyler Rorke) was eighth in the Team Sprint after a false start and will go up against the first place qualifier Netherlands team in tomorrow's first round; the Dutch set a new Olympic record of 41.279 seconds in their ride, so Canada will have a tough job moving on.

"It was pretty well not great," admitted Wammes, "I think we wanted a little more. We know the track is fast here and we were aiming for that 43 second mark. The false start definitely threw us for a loop; Tyler had a great opening lap, and unfortunately I wasn't able to follow. So we'll have to review it, stay focussed and come back tomorrow. I think we were looking to set a Canadian record and see where we we're at; just see what this team can do. The record is 43.0, so we want to break that 43 second mark; that's a big goal for us. It's definitely a fast track; we were here for 2022 world championships and there were some very fast times there. The air density is low and the energy from the crowd is really, really good, so there will be some world records broken this week."

In the Team Pursuit qualifying round for the men, Canada (Dylan Bibic, Mathias Guillemette, Michael Foley and Carson Mattern) was also eighth in 3:48.964, which was enough to squeak into the Round 1 races tomorrow. Australia put down a very fast 3:42.958 for first place, 0.283 seconds ahead of Great Britain.

Carson Mattern said about their ride, "I think it's broken the ice, I think we've been trying to do this for a while [break the 3:50 barrier]. We've done it once before, at the Continental Championships a year ago. So to do it at the Games, and have good momentum going into tomorrow is exciting. The process is the same as the world championships, and I take comfort in that, going through the same steps. It just so happens to be the Olympics, but my process is the same, and that's what delivers the results for me. You don't come to the Olympics to come fifth, so obviously we are hunting for a medal."

"This was my first time at this track," explained Foley, the Tokyo veteran on the team. "Back in 2022 I missed it [world championships] because of school, but it's a sweet track, really fast and quite similar to Milton, quite similar to home. As you can see, it's running hot! We put in a big effort over the last training camp to come together. Laura [Brown], our coach, has done this a few times [winning a bronze medal in Rio], and she did a bunch of stuff with us to bring us together."

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