World, Olympic and New Zealand records as well as a set of handlebars were all broken on a dramatic opening night at the Izu Velodrome on Monday.
The Kiwi combination of Aaron Gate, Campbell Stewart, Jordan Kerby and Regan Gough bettered the New Zealand record with a scorching opening time of 3min 46.079sec to qualify third fastest in the mens team pursuit at the Tokyo Olympics.
But despite going under the winning time from Rio de Janeiro to keep themselves on track for a gold medal, New Zealand were marginally slower than both Denmark and Italy, who both broke the Olympic record to qualify as the fastest two teams heading into the next round.
Australia’s Alex Porter took a heavy fall after his handlebars detached from his bike in qualifying.
Its our fastest-ever time so were pretty happy, Gate said.
Its cool that we can go that fast but still nitpick areas where we can go even faster, so we’re pretty excited to get stuck into the first round tomorrow and I think its still everyones to play for.
Everyone in that top four is still within reach of each other so were just going to go out there and put our best foot forward.
Campbell Stewart leads New Zealands mens team pursuit during qualifying at the Izu Velodrome.
Italys Olympic record time of 3min 45.895sec stood for a matter of minutes before reigning world champions and world record holders Denmark blitzed it again with an eye-watering 3min 45.014sec.
But wasnt just records being broken on the track. Australia had to abort their first ride following a freak crash involving Alex Porter.
The rider hit the deck hard when his handlebars detached midway through their 4000m effort, leaving Porter with burns to his nose and chin, and his uniform and the teams gold medal hopes in tatters.
Australia were given a re-run but could only manage the fifth fastest time of the night at the second attempt.
New Zealand’s women’s team pursuit squad posted the sixth fastest time in qualifying.
New Zealand will now race against an Italian team led by superstar Filippo Ganna on Tuesday, with the winner progressing to the gold medal race, where they will meet the winner of Denmark versus Great Britain.
I think it’s good for us, Gate said. We were within 0.1 of them in the qualifying ride and just losing it at the end there, I think we can pull that back from them and have a good race tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a world record ride from Germany was a hard act to follow for New Zealands womens team pursuit squad, but they could yet salvage a bronze medal.
The quartet of Bryony Botha, Holly Edmonston, Jamie Nielsen and Kirstie James improved on their time from last years World Track Cycling Championship to clock 4 min 12.536sec, the sixth fastest time in qualifying.
Taking to the velodrome straight after Germany showed their hand with a record-breaking 4 min 7.307sec to qualify first, New Zealand were unable to post a time that would have kept them in contention for gold and silver.
They will race against Australia on Tuesday, where a fast enough time could see them advance to the bronze medal race.
