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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.