PARIS — Germany strengthened their grip on the women’s Team Sprint event as they set a new world record to claim the world title. Britain toppled Olympic champions Italy to claim the men’s team pursuit world title in a thrilling final at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome in France.
Dan Bigham, Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood and Ethan Vernon helped Britain win their first title in the discipline since 2018, clocking 3:45.829 to finish 0.2 seconds before defending champions and world record holders Italy.
Denmark took the bronze medal after defeating Australia for third place, snatching the final podium spot by 1.4 seconds.
Germany defeated China in the final at the St Quentin en Yvelines velodrome.
Pauline Grabosch, Emma Hinze and Lea Sophie Friedrich clocked 45.967 seconds to improve the mark they set at last year’s world championships, where they won the title, by 0.097 seconds.
Britain took third place against the Netherlands in the race for bronze.
In the men’s race, Australia beat defending champions the Netherlands in 41.600 by a slim margin of 0.043 while there was another bronze for Britain when they topped Germany.
Italian Martina Fidanza retained her title in the 10km scratch race, as she jumped onto the wheel of Maike van der Duin with two laps to go and went solo in the final lap to easily beat the Dutchwoman.
Britain’s Jessica Roberts took third place.
“I was relaxed this year because I won the (rainbow) jersey last year. I just thought let’s see and I finished very good,” said Fidanza according to Reuters.
Great Britain claimed three bronze medals to their name in the women’s scratch race and team sprint finals.
Jessica Roberts was first up for GB in the scratch race as she endeavoured to build on her European silver from a couple of months ago, and the 23-year-old nabbed the final podium spot in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Italy’s Martina Fidanza sprinted away from the chasing pack to retain her title, while the Netherlands’ Maike van der Duin came in just ahead of Roberts in the silver medal position.
Further success for Great Britain arrived in the women’s team sprint final, as Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Lauren Bell edged out the Netherlands by the tightest of margins in the bronze medal race.
The Netherlands were marginally quicker at the 250m mark, but GB came surging forward to finish with 46.596 on the clock, beating their Dutch counterparts (46.604) by eight thousandths of a second.
In the gold medal race, Germany took the world title with a time of 45.967, as the People’s Republic of China settled for the silver medal, clocking 46.631.
Another podium finish would come GB’s way in the men’s team sprint final, as they posted a more comfortable margin of victory over Germany in their bronze medal race.
Hamish Turnbull, Alistair Fielding and Jack Carlin came in at 42.844 to clinch the bronze, leading the way the entire time over the Germans, who finished with a time of 42.950.
The gold medal in the men’s team sprint final went the way of Australia (41.600), who overcame the Netherlands (41.643) by less than five hundredths of a second.
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