- Great Britain secured the first gold medal in Olympic track cycling
- Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell, and Emma Finucane triumphed with a lead of five tenths
- They achieved a new world record for the third time on a remarkable evening
Emma Finucane, Katy Marchant, and Sophie Capewell clinched gold for Great Britain in the women’s team sprint at Paris 2024, breaking the world record in each of the three rounds on Monday.
Team GB finished with a time of 45.186 seconds, defeating New Zealand by five tenths of a second, marking Britain’s first medal in an event where they had not even qualified in the previous two Games.
The British team topped the qualifying charts with a time of 45.472, narrowly surpassing the world record set by China at a recent national event.
Highlighting the swift conditions of the Paris velodrome, both Germany and New Zealand set world records just minutes apart during the first round, only for Britain to break through again with a time of 45.338.
Britain initially fell behind on the splits after the first lap; however, Capewell made up the deficit before Finucane widened the lead during the final leg.
This led to emotional celebrations within the velodrome, as Marchant, 31, embraced her two-year-old son Arthur trackside, while 25-year-old Capewell was seen in tears during their heartfelt embrace.
She becomes the fifth mother to earn a medal for Team GB at these Games.
The Olympic title stands as a testament to the years of dedicated effort invested by the team to improve their competitiveness, especially after Marchant had previously competed solo at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, securing an individual bronze in Brazil.
Finucane, the 21-year-old world champion, aims for this to be the first of three gold medals in Paris, as she also looks forward to the individual and keirin events, with Marchant set to join her in the latter.
