Track events at the Paris Olympics have begun; men's sprint team breaks Japanese record and passes qualifying rounds - opening day of Paris 2024 Olympic track

The track event opened at the Olympics in Paris on August 5 (Monday). In the men’s team sprint, Yoshitaku Nagasako, Kaiya Ota and Yuta Ohara set a new Japanese record (42.174 seconds) and got off to a good start, advancing to the semi-finals in 4th place. On the other hand, the men’s team pursuit team finished 10th and was eliminated from the preliminary round.

The men’s team did not pass the qualifying round photo: UCI

The cycling competitions at the Paris 2024 Olympics have concluded with road races, mountain bikes, and BMX, and the track events will begin on August 5 (Monday). From now until Sunday, August 11, the last day of the competition, medals will be contested in 12 events (six for men and six for women) at the Velodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Three events were held on the first day: the women’s team sprint prelims to the finals, the men’s team pursuit prelims, and the men’s team sprint prelims. Japan participated first in the team pursuit with Kazushige Kuboki, Shunsuke Imamura, Hideya Hashimoto, and Shinji Nakano.

With the rule that only seven participants per country can take part in both the short and middle distance events, the Japanese team started in fifth place overall, with Nakano scheduled to take part in the keirin event a short distance. Nakano finished early in the 4km event, with four riders taking turns at the front, and although the remaining three riders continued to push hard, they finished 10th overall and were placed out of the qualifying round.

New Japanese record in the men’s team sprint

Track events at the Paris Olympics have begun; men’s sprint team breaks Japanese record and passes qualifying rounds – opening day of Paris 2024 Olympic track | — The men’s team sprint that passed the qualifying round with a Japanese record photo: UCI

The next men’s team sprint was Yoshitaku Nagasako, Kaiya Ota, and Yuta Ohara. It was an event where three competed for the best time to complete three laps of the track, with Japan coming in fourth. Japan finished with a time of 42.174 seconds (average 64.020km/h), which was the leading time at that time and broke the Japanese record (42.742 seconds). The Netherlands, led by Harry Lovereisen, advanced to the semi-finals in 4th place overall in a high level competition that set Olympic records.

The semi-finals, pitting Japan against France, and the final/place match will take place the following day, August 7.

Also, in the women’s team sprint held on the same day, Great Britain won the gold medal with an impressive run that broke the world record three times in the heat, semi-final and final. New Zealand took silver, and Germany, who beat the Netherlands, took third place and the bronze.