Australia qualifies 6th in women's team pursuit

Australia will face France and a partisan home crowd in the next round of the women's team pursuit after qualifying sixth in Paris overnight.

Georgia Baker, Sophie Edwards, Chloe Moran and Maeve Plouffe set a time of 4:08.612 on their first competitive outing at this year's Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

It was the quickest time up to that point in qualifying and a new national record, but the Australians' benchmark would be eclipsed by five other nations, led by New Zealand, who qualified fastest in 4:04.679.

Italy, Germany, Great Britain and the USA also went faster than the Aussie quartet.

Plouffe said the team had ridden ahead of schedule in qualifying.

"It's a game of marginal gains and marginal seconds and when we go out there we don't know what everyone else is going to do. We just need to do our best time," Plouffe said.

"So, to go out there and go a second faster than we've ever gone before as a unit is a huge thing to put out on the day.

"We're really proud and we did a really smooth ride."

Just before 10:00pm tonight (AEST), Australia and France will square off in their first round heat. Both nations are out of contention for the gold and silver medals, but a fast time would book them a place in the bronze-medal final around 3:00am.

Photo: Tim de Waele / Getty Images