Great Britain’s Emma Finucane is the new holder of the women’s flying 200 world record, posting a time of 9.759 in qualifying for the sprint competition at the 2026 European Championships, held at the high-altitude Konya track in Türkiye.

Her team-mate Sophie Capewell was among the early starters in Monday’s qualifying session. She became only the second woman in history to go under 10 seconds, and briefly held the title of Europe’s fastest woman, with her time of 9.982 – just 0.006 slower than Yuan Liying‘s historic performance at the same Konya track last March.

But Finucane was on a mission, having made no secret of her desire to claim the record. “It’s a really fast track and I just think, why not?”, she had said in the run-up to the event. “Obviously watching (her partner) Matthew (Richardson) do it too ignited something in me. That’s the first goal of 2026.”

“I was really nervous to execute the perfect ride,” she said afterwards, “and I think I pretty much went out there and did everything I possibly could technically. To come away, to look at the board and see 9.759 and break the world record is unbelievable.”

Finding definitive lists of national records is not an easy task! – but Global Keirin‘s research team concluded that eight national records were broken in the session, by (ahem) Zita Gheyssens, Veronika Jaborníková, Mathilde Gros, Miriam Vece, Hetty van de Wouw, Alina Lysenko and Helena Casas Roige … plus, of course, Finucane.

The Welsh woman saw off Nicky Degrendele, Iana Burlakova and Alina Lysenko on her way to a final against compatriot Capewell – which she won in two, the first by half a bike-length… the second more decisively.

Finucane’s week is understood to be done: she is not on the start list for Wednesday’s kilometre time trial, and is not expected to line up for keirin on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the men’s sprint competition got underway on Tuesday: Richardson was the only man able to break nine seconds, but his world record of 8.857 survived the day. Global Keirin believes nine riders (🇧🇪🇧🇬🇪🇸🇮🇹🇨🇿🇬🇷🇳🇴🇭🇺🇳🇱) ended the qualifying session with new national records – with another five riders having temporarily held the honour.