Britain tops quick team pursuit qualifier
By Shane Stokes published
Guo fastest in women's sprint qualifying
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.
1 | Great Britain | 0:03:56.869 |
Steven Burke | ||
Edward Clancy | ||
Ben Swift | ||
Andrew Tennant | ||
2 | Australia | 0:03:58.185 |
Jack Bobridge | ||
Rohan Dennis | ||
Michael Hepburn | ||
Leigh Howard | ||
3 | New Zealand | 0:03:58.616 |
Sam Bewley | ||
Westley Gough | ||
Peter Latham | ||
Jesse Sergent | ||
4 | Denmark | 0:04:02.259 |
Niki Byrgesen | ||
Michael Faerk Christensen | ||
JensErik Madsen | ||
Rasmus Christian Quaade | ||
5 | Ukraine | 0:04:04.776 |
Lyubomyr Polatayko | ||
Maksym Polischuk | ||
Vitaliy Popkov | ||
Vitaliy Shchedov | ||
6 | Netherlands | 0:04:04.818 |
Levi Heimans | ||
Arno Van Der Zwet | ||
Tim Veldt | ||
Sipke Zijlstra | ||
7 | Russia | 0:04:04.986 |
Ivan Kovalev | ||
Victor Manakov | ||
Alexei Markov | ||
Alexander Serov | ||
8 | Spain | 0:04:05.570 |
Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur | ||
Sergi Escobar Roure | ||
David Muntaner Juaneda | ||
Eloy Teruel Rovira | ||
9 | France | 0:04:07.051 |
Vivien Brisse | ||
Benoit Daeninck | ||
Julien Duval | ||
Julien Morice | ||
10 | Germany | 0:04:07.265 |
Robert Bartko | ||
Robert Bengsch | ||
Henning Bommel | ||
Patrick Gretsch | ||
11 | Italy | 0:04:08.512 |
Angelo Ciccone | ||
Marco Coledan | ||
Alessandro De Marchi | ||
Elia Viviani | ||
12 | China | 0:04:11.872 |
Pan Chen | ||
Xiao Jiang | ||
Chuanmin Li | ||
Jie Wang | ||
13 | Ireland | 0:04:12.136 |
Stephen Barrett | ||
Matthew Brammeier | ||
Martyn Irvine | ||
David O'Loughlin | ||
14 | Poland | 0:04:12.481 |
Pawel Brylowski | ||
Dawid Glowacki | ||
Piotr Kasperkiewicz | ||
Grzegorz Stepniak | ||
15 | Switzerland | 0:04:13.023 |
Damien Corthesy | ||
Silvan Dillier | ||
Loïc Perizzolo | ||
Cyrille Thiery | ||
16 | Greece | 0:04:14.765 |
Georgios Bouglas | ||
Dimitrios Chidemenakis | ||
Dimitrios Polydoropoulos | ||
Polychronis Tzortzakis | ||
17 | Austria | 0:04:21.370 |
Andreas Graf | ||
Andreas Müller | ||
Werner Riebenbauer | ||
Georg Tazreiter |
1 | Shuang Guo (China) | 0:00:10.918 |
2 | Anna Meares (Australia) | 0:00:11.030 |
3 | Olga Panarina (Belarus) | 0:00:11.077 |
4 | Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) | 0:00:11.078 |
5 | Willy Kanis (Netherlands) | 0:00:11.105 |
6 | Clara Sanchez (France) | 0:00:11.120 |
7 | Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) | 0:00:11.135 |
8 | Kaarle Mcculloch (Australia) | 0:00:11.202 |
9 | Junhong Lin (People's Republic of China) | 0:00:11.242 |
10 | Jinjie Gong (People's Republic of China) | 0:00:11.250 |
11 | Virginie Cueff (France) | 0:00:11.340 |
12 | Kristina Vogel (Germany) | 0:00:11.356 |
13 | Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands) | 0:00:11.385 |
14 | Miriam Welte (Germany) | 0:00:11.408 |
15 | Victoria Baranova (Russian Federation) | 0:00:11.426 |
16 | Lyubov Shulika (Ukraine) | 0:00:11.442 |
17 | Emily Rosemond (Australia) | 0:00:11.444 |
18 | Jessica Varnish (Great Britain) | 0:00:11.464 |
19 | Rebecca Angharad James (Great Britain) | 0:00:11.518 |
20 | Sandie Clair (France) | 0:00:11.559 |
21 | Wai Sze Lee (Hong Kong, China) | 0:00:11.564 |
22 | Christin Muche (Germany) | 0:00:11.571 |
23 | Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba) | 0:00:11.600 |
24 | Olga Streltsova (Russian Federation) | 0:00:11.700 |
25 | Renata Dabrowska (Poland) | 0:00:11.922 |
26 | Helena Casas Roige (Spain) | 0:00:11.995 |
27 | Gintare Gaivenyte (Lithuania) | 0:00:12.084 |
1 | Shuang Guo (China) | 0:00:11.914 |
2 | Olga Streltsova (Russian Federation) |
1 | Anna Meares (Australia) | 0:00:11.682 |
2 | Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez (Cuba) |
1 | Olga Panarina (Belarus) | 0:00:12.114 |
2 | Christin Muche (Germany) |
1 | Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) | 0:00:11.782 |
2 | Wai Sze Lee (Hong Kong, China) |
1 | Willy Kanis (Netherlands) | 0:00:11.418 |
2 | Sandie Clair (France) |
1 | Clara Sanchez (France) | 0:00:11.874 |
2 | Rebecca Angharad James (Great Britain) |
1 | Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) | 0:00:11.794 |
2 | Jessica Varnish (Great Britain) |
1 | Kaarle Mcculloch (Australia) | 0:00:11.577 |
2 | Emily Rosemond (Australia) |
1 | Lyubov Shulika (Ukraine) | 0:00:11.693 |
2 | Junhong Lin (People's Republic of China) |
1 | Victoria Baranova (Russian Federation) | 0:00:11.898 |
2 | Jinjie Gong (People's Republic of China) |
1 | Virginie Cueff (France) | 0:00:11.848 |
REL | Miriam Welte (Germany) |
1 | Kristina Vogel (Germany) | 0:00:11.813 |
2 | Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands) |
1 | Shuang Guo (China) | 0:00:11.804 |
2 | Kristina Vogel (Germany) |
1 | Anna Meares (Australia) | 0:00:11.717 |
2 | Virginie Cueff (France) |
1 | Victoria Baranova (Russian Federation) | 0:00:11.763 |
2 | Olga Panarina (Belarus) |
1 | Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania) | 0:00:11.660 |
2 | Lyubov Shulika (Ukraine) |
1 | Kaarle Mcculloch (Australia) | 0:00:11.536 |
2 | Willy Kanis (Netherlands) |
1 | Victoria Pendleton (Great Britain) | 0:00:11.552 |
2 | Clara Sanchez (France) |

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