MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France (AP) — Olympic road race champion Kristen Faulkner will go for her second gold medal of the Paris Games with U.S. teammates Chloe Dygert, Jennifer Valente and Lilly Williams against New Zealand in the finals of the women’s team pursuit Wednesday night.
The Americans never have won the event, twice taking the silver medal and once earning bronze in three previous editions.
In a semifinal showdown with world champ Britain, they built a nearly half-second lead halfway through the 4,000-meter race at the Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Dygert went to the front for the final lap around the track, and the Olympic time trial bronze medalist managed to keep her team ahead to the finish line.
The U.S. stopped the clock in 4 minutes, 4.629 seconds, while the British team of Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jessica Roberts finished in 4:04.908, sending it into a bronze-medal match against Italy.
The team from New Zealand of Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman and Nicole Shields that nearly broke the world record in qualifying earlier in the week finished in 4:04.818, beating the Italian team by nearly three seconds.
In the men’s team pursuit finals Wednesday night, the Australian quartet of Sam Welsford, Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy and Kellen O’Brien will try to lower its own world record when it races for gold against the British team of Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood, Ethan Vernon and Charlie Tanfield.
World champion Denmark and reigning Olympic champ Italy will go head to head for the men’s pursuit bronze.
Also on the third day of Olympic track cycling, qualifying took place for the men’s sprint, where each rider got about two laps to get up to speed and then tried to cover 200 meters — just under a full lap of the velodrome — as quickly as possible.
On a fast, hot track where records have been falling more quickly than medals are being handed out, the mark was set twice for the 200-meter flying lap. Matthew Richardson of Australia snatched it away from reigning Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen in 9.091 seconds, only for the Dutch rider to claim it back a few minutes later in 9.088.
The women’s keirin, where six riders spend three laps paced behind a motorized bike called a derny before getting turned loose to sprint for three laps, also began with New Zealand favorite Ellesse Andrews, German stars Lea Friedrich and Emma Hinze, and British standout Emma Finucane getting through their opening heats without a problem.
Finucane’s teammate, Katy Marchant, finished third in her heat race and was headed to the repechages.
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