Australian team pursuit men top qualifying, team sprint men enter first round as third seed

Australia's track cycling campaign at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has started superbly after qualifying first in men's team pursuit and third in men's team sprint.

The men's team pursuit quartet of Kell O'Brien, Oliver Bleddyn, Conor Leahy and Sam Welsford raced to a blistering new national record time of 3:42.958 at Vélodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines to best Great Britain by 0.283 of a second, Denmark by 0.732 and defending Olympic champions Italy by 1.393 seconds.

Not since Athens 2004 has an Australian men's team pursuit squad topped qualifying at the Olympics, with that team going on to win the gold medal.

Australia will race Italy in the final heat of the first round from 3:14am AEST tomorrow for a place in the gold medal final on the following day.

Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer started their highly anticipated Olympic team sprint charge in solid fashion, with a time of 42.072.

However, they will return tomorrow knowing they have to improve to bridge the gap to their Dutch rivals, who topped qualifying in Olympic record time of 41.279.

The Australian trio started strongly out of the gate but came unstuck when a gap formed between second man Richardson and third man Glaetzer.

Positively, Hoffman and Richardson laid down the fastest first two laps of any nation in qualifying, with Hoffman setting a new starting lap benchmark time of 16.886 seconds.

Great Britain split the Netherlands and Australia, with Japan and France in fourth and fifth respectively.

Australia will race in the first round opposite China tomorrow from 2:59am.

The two fastest winning nations from the first round will progress to the gold medal final an hour later. The two slower winners will race for bronze.

What they said:

O'Brien: "Qualifying is always a difficult one. It's been a long time since we've raced together so there's definitely a few things we can iron out tomorrow onwards.

"Over the next couple of days we're going to see some fast times for sure.

"We don't really know where our limits are yet and that's what we are here to find out over the next couple of days.

"We're really proud of what we've done so far.

"I think there's a few things we can tweak technically as a team to definitely dial in a little bit more and use our strengths to our advantage even more than we have today.

"Who knows what can happen over the next couple of days."

Welsford: "We've changed a few things, we've seen Kell come out of the gate now which is a massive change since Tokyo, so that's a role that is really exciting to see and he handles that in a such a good way.

"I think one of the best things about our team is the flexibility in that we can run a lot of options so I think that's definitely playing to our strengths here.

"That's a massive PB best for us and to go 3:42.9 is really special. We knew it was going to be fast here because the track is so good for team pursuiting.

"It was a bit of a surprise to be honest, I wasn't expecting that but I think the way we rode it was really good and we just had a lot more to give in that race."

Hoffman: "We were hoping to be a bit quicker. 42.0 is a pretty average day for us. We were definitely hoping to get in that sub-41.5 range for this first ride.

"On the day, we sort of made a few adjustments in gearing, and we'll do that in the final and see if we can bring the team back together.

"It was also surprising with GB, they've definitely stepped it up and put the pressure on but at the end of the day we've got to ride our own race ... and we've got to do the fastest possible time that we can do as a team.

"Tomorrow we definitely want to be in that Olympic record range. The Dutch have done it so I don't see why we can't.

"We were hoping we'd be the surprise today doing that Olympic record straightaway but we've got some adjustments to do and it's no stress — I have full faith in the team and coaches to get that man three going as quick as possible."

Pictures: Getty Images