Lichfield's Sophie Capewell and teammates claim Olympic cycling gold on triple record-breaking night

The 25-year-old from Lichfield and team-mates Katy Marchant and Emma Finucane beat New Zealand in the final to cap a thrilling night at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, which saw them break the world record three times.

The last of those came in the final when they beat New Zealand, who had briefly set a new world best earlier in the evening, by nearly half a second.

Big things are expected from GB on the track in these Games and this was the strongest start possible.

This was a thrilling competition which saw the world record broken four times, three of those coming in the space of around six minutes as GB and New Zealand qualified for the gold medal race at the expense of reigning world champions Germany.

Capewell, Marchant and Finucane laid down a marker when they beat the previous mark posted by China in June, clocking 45.472 seconds in qualifying.

That was then bettered by the Germans, who were barely back in the warm-up area before New Zealand went quicker by just under three-hundredths of a second.

The pressure was on the GB trio but once again they delivered, their time of 45.338 shaving another hundredth and sending them into the gold medal race.

They were behind after the opening lap of three but Capewell, riding the second, pulled things back before Finucane brought it home.

It sparked emotional celebrations in the velodrome with Marchant, 31, kissing her two-year-old son Arthur at the side of the track while Capewell could be seen in floods of tears as they embraced.

The Olympic title is vindication for several years of hard work put in by the team to become competitive, after Marchant was left to fly the flag alone at both the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, winning individual bronze in Brazil.

Finucane, the 21-year-old individual world champion, is hoping this could be the first of three gold medals in Paris as she also targets the individual event and the keirin, with Marchant due to join her in the latter event.

It is all a far cry from three years ago, when they failed to qualify for Tokyo.

Capewell told the Express & Star last month: “We made a pact amongst all the girls on the squad a few years ago that we wanted to change the narrative.

“We realised we weren’t going to qualify for Tokyo in the team sprint. We decided we didn’t want that to happen again.

“We didn’t want to be the squad that was having to find different avenues to qualify for an Olympics. We wanted to be a force.”

An emotional Capewell later paid tribute to her late father Nigel, who competed on the track at the Paralympics in Sydney and Athens and passed away in 2021.

"The support, the journey to get here, I’ve had my own personal battles and I wish my dad could have been in the stands watching me, but I know he was proud of me.

"It didn’t feel real all day, we just did every ride and 'oh faster, oh faster again'. Like Emma said – we stuck to our process."

Clarke had looked a strong favourite for gold after cruising through the rounds in the kayak cross at Vaires-sur-Marne but a poor start in the final cost him dear as New Zealand’s Finn Marchant took gold.

But the 31-year-old from Stone is still a two-time Olympic medallist and said: "I'll be honest with you, I came into this event wanting to win gold and that didn't happen today but I'm not disappointed in any way.”

Earlier in the evening, there was a strong start from Stone’s Dan Bigham and the men’s team pursuit team.

Their time of three minutes, 42.958 seconds was more than two seconds quicker than any GB pursuit team had gone before and saw them qualify second behind Australia for Tuesday’s opening round.

It followed more success for the region on the whitewater, where Joe Clarke followed in the footsteps of fellow Stafford and canoe club member Adam Burgess by winning silver in the kayak cross.