Women’s team pursuit world record falls twice in 10 minutes
Four team pursuit world records broken in one day at the Tokyo Olympics
The women’s team pursuit world record has been broken three times in one session at the Tokyo Olympics.
In a tight first-round tussle against Team USA on Tuesday afternoon, Great Britain’s women’s team posted a time of 4:06.748 for the 4,000-metre event, more than half a second faster than the 4:07.307 set by Germany in qualifying a day earlier. Mere minutes later, in its first-round race against Italy, Germany took back the record with a 4:06.166, another half-second faster than Team GB’s time.
Later in the evening the two record-breaking teams squared off in the gold-medal race. There, the German quartet of Franziska Brauße, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein, and Mieke Kröger lowered the world record yet again, posting a scorching time of 4:04.242 – almost two seconds faster than their first round record from just a few hours earlier. That time was easily enough to take the gold medal ahead of Great Britain. In the bronze-medal race, Team USA beat Canada with a time of 4:08.040.
Coming into the Tokyo Olympics the women’s team pursuit record sat at 4:10.236, posted by Team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics. By the end of the team pursuit competition in Tokyo, that record was six seconds faster, with Germany having set a new mark in all three of its races, and Team GB having done so once.
The men’s team pursuit world record was also broken on Tuesday with a Filippo Ganna-led Italy posting a blistering 3:42.307 – more than two seconds faster than the previous mark set by Denmark at the 2020 Track World Championships in Berlin.
