Lea Sophie Friedrich watched rival after rival beating her flying 200m Olympic record from the Tokyo games – then not only reclaimed it, but snatched the world record too.
The German posted a time of 10.029, then watched anxiously as Emma Hinze, Emma Finucane and Kelsey Mitchell went close, but couldn’t go faster.
In all, 10 women went faster than Friedrich’s previous Olympic record of 10.310 – and, remarkably, two other women matched it exactly.
A total of four women went faster than Kelsey Mitchell’s world record, set at altitude in 2019.
Ellesse Andrews of New Zealand, winner of last night’s keirin, was first to do so, with 10.108. Two riders later, Great Britain’s Sophie Capewell took a further five hundredths off the record. Next was Friedrich, who became the first woman to go below 10.1 – joined soon after by Emma Finucane, on 10.067.
But as we noted with the men, only the day’s final record will be ratified by the UCI – meaning the names of Andrews and Capewell will not be entered in the official record book.
The honour of being the first woman under 10 seconds remains to be claimed – much like the men earlier in the week, almost breaking 9 seconds, but not quite.
The women’s match sprint competition started soon after, concluding on Sunday afternoon.
