The Great Britain trio of Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott added yet another Gold medal to the host nations haul in the velodrome by once again beating their own World record in the final match against the United States team of Sarah Hammer, Dotsie Bausch and Jennie Reed.
In the men’s Sprint and Omnium events the big names rose to the top of the competition as they both headed into their second day.
Great Britain completely dominates inaugural women’s Team Pursuit
In the first round the Australian team of Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic was on World record schedule for the first two kilometres of its first round match with the United States. The pace proved to be too much however, and Australia began to tie up, and the United States pipped them on the line in 3:16.853.
The Australian time was more than a second faster than the quickest so far, set by the new Zealand team of Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen and Alison Shanks, and so would be good enough to make the bronze medal race.
Great Britain was not to be outdone however, and put almost a whole second into the record that they set the night before to post 3:14.682. The Canada team of Tara Whitten, Gillian Carleton and Jasmin Glaesser managed to hold a consistent pace on the opposite side of the track to finish in 3:17.454, to set up a bronze medal match with Australia.
The Australians began the race the quicker of the two teams, but the Canadians managed to ease past them in the second kilometre to win the battle for bronze by just over a tenth of a second.
The British trio was almost eight-tenths ahead after the first kilometre of the ride off for gold, and kept increasing it over the next two to finish almost six seconds clear of the United States team in 3:14.051. Once again King, Rowsell and Trott had taken six-tenths of a second off their own World record, to take Great Britain’s fourth Gold on the track out of five events so far.
Result women’s Team Pursuit
1. Great Britain (Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott)
2. United States (Sarah Hammer, Dotsie Bausch and Jennie Reed)
3. Canada (Tara Whitten, Gillian Carleton and Jasmin Glaesser)
4. Australia (Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic)
The favourites advance to the second day of the men’s Sprint
There was a touch of farce to the men’s Sprint qualification. Since the Netherlands had declined its place in the event there were only 17 riders that completed the flying 200 metres to establish the competition’s seeding. This meant that there was nobody to ride the first round sprint against fastest qualifier Jason Kenny - who had broken the Olympic record with a time of 9.713 seconds - and he simply had to roll around the lap to take his bye to the next round.
Assuming - understandably - that the 1/16 final would be competed between the top 16 qualifiers, 17th place Zafeirios Volikakis of Greece failed to turn up for his match against World champion Grégory Baugé, and so the World champion was also given a bye to the next round.
In the second round the big names managed to advance without too many problems, with Kenny and Baugé cruising past South African Bernard Esterhuizen and Japan’s Seiichiro Nakagawa respectively. Shane Perkins of Australia had to rely on the disqualification of Venezuelan Hersony Canelon however, while Germany’s Robert Forstemann and Malaysia’s Azizulhasni Awang had to rely on the the repechage since they were beaten by underdogs Njisane Phillip of Trinidad and Tobago and Denis Dmitriev of Russia. The United States’ Jimmy Watkins won the final sprint round to complete the quarter final draw.
Men’s Sprint quarter final draw
Heat 1
Jason Kenny (Great Britain)
Azizulhasni Awang (Malaysia)
Heat 2
Grégory Baugé (France)
Robert Forstemann (Germany)
Heat 3
Shane Perkins (Australia)
Jimmy Watkins (United States)
Heat 4
Njisane Phillip (Trinidad and Tobago)
Denis Dmitriev (Russia)
The race favourites begin to show themselves in the men’s Omnium
Fresh from his victory as part of Great Britain’s Team Pursuit gold medal the day before, Ed Clancy took an early lead in the men’s Omnium with a time of 12.556 seconds for the flying lap. New Zealand’s Shane Archbold made a good start, with second place, just ahead of Australian World champion Glenn O’Shea, in an identical top three to the rainbow jersey race back in April.
The points race saw the early leaders losing out however, as Germany’s Roger Kluge managed to be the only rider to take three laps out of the field and finished with a massive total of 79 points. Behind the German was a group of five riders with two laps, but it was Denmark’s Lasse Norman Hansen that took second place, on 59 points, with Eloy Teruel of Spain taking third with 55. Hansen’s second place saw him take over the competition lead, having taken fourth in the Flying Lap.
The standings were turned on their heads again in the Elimination race, as Hansen exited early, and it was France’s Bryan Coquard who took the win and the overnight lead. The Frenchman beat Italian Elia Viviani in the final dash for the line, after the two of them had dispatched O’Shea on the penultimate sprint.
Coquard finished the first day of the competition with a total of just ten points - thanks to his fifth in the Flying Lap and fourth in the Points Race - with Viviani in second place with 13, and O’Shea in third with 14.
Results men’s Omnium
Flying Lap
1. Ed Clancy (Great Britain)
2. Steve Archbold (New Zealand)
3. Glenn O’Shea (Australia)
4. Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark)
5. Bryan Coquard (France)
Points Race
1. Roger Kluge (Germany)
2. Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark)
3. Eloy Teruel (Spain)
4. Bryan Coquard (France)
5. Elia Viviani (Italy)
Elimination Race
1. Bryan Coquard (France)
2. Elia Viviani (Italy)
3. Glenn O’Shea (Australia)
4. Walter Perez (Argentina)
5. Ed Clancy (Great Britain)
Standings after three events
1. Bryan Coquard (France) 10pts
2. Elia Viviani (Italy) 13
3. Glenn O’Shea (Australia) 14
4. Ed Clancy (Great Britain) 17
5. Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark) 18