PARIS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The United States won the cycling track gold medal in the women's team pursuit, beating New Zealand in a time of 4.04.306 to their rivals' 4.04.927 at Paris 2024 on Wednesday.
The win means U.S. cyclist Kristen Faulkner will leave Paris with a gold medal on the track and on the road after her triumph in Sunday's road race, while her teammate Chloe Dygert also has compensation after falling in both the road race and time trial.
Jennifer Valente and Lily Williams set a punishing pace for the Americans in the first kilometers, and they were 1.3 seconds up by the halfway stage.
The New Zealand quartet of Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman and Nicole Shields kept their rhythm and began to pull the Americans back, although the U.S. began to fade, they had enough to take gold.
New Zealand were the fastest team in qualifying on Monday, but the U.S. improved in Tuesday's first round to squeeze past Britain by just 0.2s, and they have the consolation of being only the fifth nation to win an Olympic medal in this event.
Team GB's quartet of Elinor Barker, Jose Knight, Anne Morris and Jessica Roberts claimed bronze thanks to a powerful last 1,500 meters, coming back from over a second down to beat Italy by over two seconds.
The team pursuit sees teams of four riders start of opposite sides of the 250-meter track before completing 16 circuits as quickly as possible. It is a test of strength, speed and organization as it is vital for the riders to stay as close as possible to each other to cut down on wind resistance. ■
