First round heats of the women’s pursuit determined who would race for gold later in the day. As a reminder, the winners of heats 3 and 4 were guaranteed to race for gold (U.S. vs. Great Britain and New Zealand vs. Italy). The bronze medal race would be determined by the next two fastest times, regardless of heat. 

The Americans won the closest race of the day over Great Britain to advance to the gold medal race at 1:28 p.m. ET.

FULL RESULTS

The Americans had a tall task in facing the current world champions in Great Britain. After qualifying with the second-fastest time, the U.S. squad was up to the task and crossed the line first with a time of 4:04.629, a national record.

Great Britain took the early lead at the 250m, with the U.S. just a tenth of a second behind. By the 625m mark, the Americans responded and led. Kristen Faulkner helped increase the American’s lead to two tenths of a second by the 1250m mark. The U.S. slowly increased their lead, at the 2000m mark they had three tenths of a second lead; however, Great Britain closed the gap to tenth of a second 500m later. 

Once the two teams dropped down to three riders, the U.S. really finished strong. As the bell rung for the final lap, the Americans maintained their .1 second lead, there was concern for a second as Lily Williams lost contact off the back, but she held on as the Americans finished first, 0.279 seconds ahead of the Great Britain for the win. Jennifer Valente and Chloe Dygert joined Faulkner and Williams as the other two members of the team to record the fastest time of the round. Great Britain finished with the third fastest time to race in the bronze medal race.

The final first round heat was between New Zealand and Italy, the winner would join the United States in the gold medal race. New Zealand finished ahead of Italy with a time of 4:04.818. 

This race wasn’t as close as the battle between the U.S. and Great Britain, New Zealand led the entire time, sometimes by over two seconds.  New Zealand pulled back a bit once the race was in hand but finished with the second fastest time of the round. Italy set another national record and will race for the bronze medal.

In the first race of the day Australia and France faced off after both teams set national records in the qualifying round. France led first 250m but by the 500m mark Australia took the lead. France briefly took back the lead. It was a tight race with lead changes every half a lap. 

Around the 2000m mark, crowd erupted to lift France to victory. France took over five tenths of a time off their personal best and crossed the line with a time of 4:08.292, a national record. The Aussies will race Canada in the seventh-place race.

Heat two saw Germany and Canada battle. The defending champions, Germany, looked like a team disappointed to not be racing for gold after finishing fifth in the qualifying round. 

The Germans led end-to-end and crossed the finish line at 4:07.908, nearly two seconds faster than their qualifying time. Germany finished with the fifth fastest time and will race France in the fifth-place race.