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29th Olympic Games - JO

Beijing, China, August 9-23, 2008

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Event 5 - August 15: Men's Team Sprint Qualifying, Round 1

Brits smash world record

By Laura Weislo

Great Britain's Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy (l-r)
Photo ©: AFP
(Click for larger image)

The team from Great Britain shattered the world record in the men's team sprint qualifying round, becoming the first squad ever to break the 43 second barrier for the three-lap race. Jamie Staff and Jason Kenny put in the fastest two opening laps ever recorded, going 17.198 and 12.555, respectively, setting such a blistering pace that anchorman Chris Hoy had to struggle to hold the wheel of Kenny before taking over for his solo lap. But the last Olympic kilometre time trial champion regained his composure and sealed the sub-43 time with a 13.197 lap.

France, the hot favourite coming into the Olympic Games, was more than a half second behind with a 43.541, while Germany was a surprise third. The defending Olympic champions hadn't shown well in the past few seasons, but hit their stride in Beijing to slip under the Dutch squad with a 44.197.

Australia faltered in the qualifying round, coming fifth, but came good on the first round to beat the Dutch with a 44.090. Their time was strong enough to put them into the bronze medal final with Germany. France subbed out Kevin Sireau for Mickaël Bourgain, but still could not challenge the British, yet still managed to hold off the resurgent Germans to enter the gold medal final by four tenths of a second. The Brits flirted with the 43 second barrier for the second time, but Staff had lost a bit of his snap on the lead lap, and they came in with a 43.034.

Photography

For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here

Images by AFP Photo

Results

1 Great Britain        42.950 (62.863km/h)
  Chris Hoy             
  Jason Kenny           
  Jamie Staff           

2 France               43.541
  Gregory Bauge         
  Kevin Sireau          
  Arnaud Tournant       

3 Germany              44.197
  Rene Enders           
  Maximilian Levy       
  Stefan Nimke          

4 Netherlands          44.213
  Theo Bos              
  Teun Mulder           
  Tim Veldt             

5 Australia            44.335
  Daniel Ellis          
  Mark French           
  Shane Kelly           

6 Japan                44.454
  Kiyofumi Nagai        
  Tomohiro Nagatsuka    
  Kazunari Watanabe     

7 Malaysia             44.725
  Mohd Azizulhasni Awang
  Josiah Ng             
  Mohd Rizal Tisin      

8 United States        45.346
  Michael Blatchford    
  Adam Duvendeck        
  Giddeon Massie        

9 China                45.556
  Yong Feng             
  Wenhao Li             
  Lei Zhang             

10 Greece              45.645
   Athanasios Mantzouranis 
   Vasileios Reppas      
   Panagiotis Voukelatos 

11 Czech Republic      45.678
   Tomas Babek           
   Adam Ptacnik          
   Denis Spicka          

12 Russian Fed         45.964
   Sergey Polynskiy      
   Denis Dmitriev        
   Sergey Kucherov       

13 Poland              45.266
   Maciej Bielecki       
   Kamil Kuczynski       
   Lukasz Kwiatkowski  

Round 1

Heat 1	

1 Australia         0.44.090 (61.236 km/h)
 Ryan Bayley               	
 Daniel Ellis              	
 Mark French               	

2 Netherlands       0.44.212
 Theo Bos                  	
 Teun Mulder               	
 Tim Veldt                 	

Heat 2	

1 Germany           0.43.699 (61.786 km/h)
 Rene Enders               	
 Maximilian Levy           	
 Stefan Nimke              	

2 Japan             0.44.437
 Kiyofumi Nagai            	
 Tomohiro Nagatsuka        	
 Kazunari Watanabe         	

Heat 3	

1 France            0.43.656 (61.847 km/h)
 Gregory Bauge             	
 Mickael Bourgain          	
 Kevin Sireau              	

2 Malaysia          0.44.822
 Mohd Azizulhasni Awang    	
 Josiah Ng                 	
 Mohd Rizal Tisin          	

Heat 4	

1 Great Britain     0.43.034 (62.741 km/h)
 Chris Hoy                 	
 Jason Kenny               	
 Jamie Staff               	

2 United States     0.45.423
 Michael Blatchford        	
 Adam Duvendeck            	
 Giddeon Massie            	
     

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