Team GB win 11th gold at Olympics and smash world record in women’s team sprint cycling | Other | Sport

Team GB won their 11th gold medal of the Paris Olympics as their record-breaking trio defeated New Zealand inside the velodrome. Katie Marchant, Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane beat the world record three times; twice during qualifying.

There has been vast expectation hanging over Britain’s cycling team ahead of this week’s events. Marchant, Capewell and Finucane showed little evidence of feeling the pressure as they brushed off the competition of New Zealand, finishing the final in 45.186 seconds.

New Zealand initially took the lead in the race, with Rebecca Petch able to get ahead of Marchant early on. However, from then it was a comfortable victory for the British riders.

Capewell gave her team the lead as she took over from Marchant. Finucane breezed towards the finish line to land Team GB yet another gold medal midway through a fantastic Games for the British athletes.

The world record was broken a remarkable five times this evening. Team GB secured it in qualifying, although it did not last long as Germany soon set their own. New Zealand then briefly held the world record before Team GB broke it again during the first round.

A final run of 45.186 was enough to set yet another world record in a dramatic sequence of racing. All three cyclists were hugely emotional as they reflected on the race.

Marchant told the BBC: “It’s a dream come true. We’ve worked so incredibly hard towards this. There’s no two people I’d rather get on a start line with. We’re absolutely over the moon.”

“We’re so proud, we nailed that ride,” Finucane added. “I believed we could do that but to actually execute it? And I’ve never celebrated like that in my life. We’ve worked so hard with Scott and everyone back at home, I want to say a huge thank you, the support has been unreal.”

Capewell concluded: “It’s very emotional, it’s been such a long project. We basically sat down as a team and were like, ‘this is something we need to work on, we want to qualify for the Games’. We haven’t just qualified, we’ve won the whole b***** thing!’”

Team GB will hope this gold medal is only the start of a fantastic week for their cyclists. Dame Laura Kenny, Britain’s most decorated woman Olympian, has predicted that her former colleagues will seal as many as eight golds in their events over the coming days.