Britain tops quick team pursuit qualifier

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It’s landed just one gold medal thus far, but the Great Britain is very much in the hunt for another this evening after it went quickest in the qualifying round of the team pursuit.

The quartet of Stephen Burke, Ed Clancy, Ben Swift and Andrew Tennant scorched around the track in a time of 3 minutes 56.869 seconds. This was over a second faster than second-placed Australia, who Team GB will meet in this evening’s gold medal final.

New Zealand and Denmark were third and fourth, clocking times of 3.58.616 and 4.02.259. The latter started last and was initially on the fastest pace, beating Britain. However the riders cracked and slipped behind, perhaps getting carried away with a very vocal home support.

These two teams will square up in the bronze medal fight this evening, while the Ukraine and Netherlands complete the top six.

Kanis out in 1/8 finals, other favourites go through

There were few surprises in the opening three rounds of the women’s sprint, although the non-progression of regular World Cup medallist Willy Kanis (Netherlands) was a little unexpected. She was fifth-fastest in the qualifying time trial and progressed through the 1/16 final by beating Sandy Clair (France), but then lost out to Kaarle McCulloch (Australia).

Kanis went up against another surprising omission in the repechage, Olga Panarina (Belarussia). She had qualified third-quickest, only to lose out to Victoria Baranova (Russia) in her 1/8 heat. Kanis led Panarina and Virginie Cueff (France) onto the final lap, but was easily passed by the Belorussian.

Kristina Vogel (Germany) won the other repechage, leading out and holding off Clara Sanchez (France) and Lyubov Shulika (Ukraine).

Earlier, six riders went through by the conventional route; in other words, by winning their 1/16 and 1/8 finals. Defending champion Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) only qualified seventh fastest, but beat compatriot Jess Varnish easily. She had a tighter tussle with Sanchez, who came back at her after Pendleton jumped first, but managed to hit the line ahead.

Past silver and bronze medallist Shuang Guo (China) beat Vogel in heat one of the 1/8 finals. Anna Meares (Australia) led out Cueff and fended her off; Baranova was two lengths behind Panarina at the bell but got by, and Simona Krupeckaite (Lituania) jumped early to beat Shulika.

McCullough’s win over Kanis was a straightforward one, while Pendleton had to battle much harder to get by Sanchez. That will give her rivals hope that the four-time world champion is less bulletproof than before.