Flying Emma Finucane fires Britain to team sprint gold in cycling
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From left: Katy Marchant, Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell of Great Britain celebrating during the medal ceremony for the women's team sprint event at the National Velodrome on Aug 5.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES – Britain’s women blazed to gold in the Olympic track cycling team sprint when they out-paced New Zealand with their third world record-lowering ride at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Aug 5.
Experienced Katy Marchant and Games debutantes Sophie Capewell and Emma Finucane made sure the track cycling programme began with a bang for Britain as they dominated the competition.
Welsh rider Finucane, the individual world champion, enjoyed a glorious Olympic bow as she led the team home after being set up perfectly by Marchant and Capewell.
“Katy delivered the first lap, Sophie delivered me for the last lap and I literally gave it 120 per cent,” said the 21-year-old, the great-niece of decorated Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot Paddy Finucane.
“I literally saw red. I think that’s what it takes to win and to break world records, you have to go deeper than your body’s ever been before. And I found that, and we all did and we delivered on the day under huge pressure.
“All those tears we’ve cried, all those moments our legs have been hurting, it’s all been worth it.”
For 31-year-old Marchant, who celebrated with her two-year-old son Arthur, it had been a long wait for a gold medal, having earned individual bronze at Rio 2016.
“To break three world records and come away as Olympic champions, we just absolutely nailed it, and I’m so proud of us,” she told BBC Sport.
Britain had not even qualified for the Olympic women’s team sprint since 2012 but came in with great expectations and did not disappoint as they clocked a world record of 45.186 seconds in the final.
New Zealand’s trio of Rebecca Petch, Shaane Fulton and Ellesse Andrews finished in 45.659sec, while world champions Germany took bronze in 45.400 after beating the Netherlands.
Britain have been a track powerhouse since the Beijing Olympics, but the women’s sprint disciplines have not been a happy hunting ground. That all changed on Aug 5.
Inside a sweltering velodrome, they turned up the heat immediately to break China’s world record in the qualifying rounds.
Incredibly, Germany’s Pauline Grabosch, Emma Hinze and Lea Friedrich, lowered the mark again in the first-round heats, before New Zealand went even quicker.
Britain then beat Canada in their heat in yet another world record to set up a three-lap showdown with New Zealand.
They trailed marginally but Finucane flew around the final lap to secure gold.
For 25-year-old Capewell, there were tears in memory of her father Nigel, a Paralympian cyclist who died in 2021. “I’ve had my own personal battles and I wish my dad could have been in the stands watching me but I know he was proud of me,” she said.
“It didn’t feel real all day, we just did every ride and ‘oh faster, oh faster again’.” REUTERS
