The Great Britain men’s team pursuit team have qualified through to the next round on the first day of competition at the UCI Track World Cup in Cali Colombia.
The team of Germain Burton, Matt Gibson, Chris Latham and Mark Stewart were in tenth place overall after the first kilometre but the British foursome pushed on hard over the remaining 12 laps to place seventh overall.
With the first eight teams qualifying through to the first round, this was enough to earn them a further ride.
They will face the Spanish team who finished just fifteen hundredths of a second ahead of them when they meet later on today.
In the women’s team pursuit, Great Britain’s Emily Kay, Manon Lloyd, Emily Nelson and Amy Roberts (representing Welsh trade team, Team USN) recorded a time of 4:42.472 which placed them tenth overall after all 17 teams had finished. The team will go no further with only the top eight teams making it through to the next round.
Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant narrowly missed out on a place in the women’s team sprint finals which will be held later on today.
With only the fastest four teams progressing on to the final, their final placing of fifth overall means they missed out on a place in the bronze medal ride off by just over two hundredths of a second.
The men’s team sprint squad got off to a difficult start sitting in 12th place overall after the first 250 metres.
Man one and Scottish guest rider Jonathan Biggin then passed the lead on to man two Lewis Oliva who reduced the gap down to 10th at the conclusion of two laps. Even with a last big push from man three Matt Crampton, this was still not enough to put them in the top four and earn them a second ride.
They finished in sixth place overall after the German team were relegated for an improper change.
Day two will see Jess Varnish and Vicky Williamson start their campaign in the women’s sprint, Lewis Oliva will also compete in the men’s keirin as Great Britain’s sole representative.
Oliver Wood and Emily Kay will start the first day of their respective omniums with the scratch race and the men’s team pursuit squad will be looking to secure a place in tonight’s bronze medal finals when they take to the boards of the Velodromo Alcides Nieto Patino in the men’s team pursuit first round against the team from Spain.
Results
Women's team pursuit qualification
Men's team pursuit qualification
Women's team sprint qualification
Men's team sprint qualification
