PREVIEW: FRIDAY AT THE LAOSHAN VELODROME

• Thursday, 14 August 2008
• Lionel Birnie
• 0 Comments

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Two 20-year-olds will line up for Great Britain on the opening day of the track programme at the Olympic Games.

Jason Kenny gets the nod for the qualifying round of the team sprint and takes his place between Jamie Staff and Chris Hoy in the Great Britain line-up.

Britain have been drawn in the same qualifying heat as the defending Olympic champions Germany. There are seven heats with 13 teams taking part. The fastest eight will go through to round one.

There is a strong medal chance but standing in the way of Britain and gold on Friday’s opening day of action from the Laoshan velodrome is the formidable French team sprint trio.

Meanwhile Steven Burke gets the second British place in the individual pursuit qualification round alongside Bradley Wiggins.

The 20-year-old will face Colombia’s Carlos Alzate in the second of nine heats. Defending champion Bradley Wiggins goes in the final heat against Russia’s Alexei Markov. The eight fastest riders qualify for round one.

In the women’s individual pursuit, Wendy Houvenaghel and reigning world champion Rebecca Romero go in the last two heats.

DAY ONE Friday, August 15
Note, all times are UK times

IN BRIEF… WHAT’S ON
• Men’s team sprint qualifying, first round and finals
• Men’s individual pursuit qualifying round
• Women’s individual pursuit qualifying round

MEDALS ON OFFER…
1 – Men’s team sprint

CW’S LIVE COVERAGE
Stuck in the office? Can’t see a telly? Join CW for live coverage of the first day on the track just before 9.30am (UK time).

9.30am Men's team sprint qualifying

Competition rules Fastest eight teams progress to round one where qualifying times will determine the draw. It will be 1st v 8th, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th, 4th v 5th.

Start order
Heat 1
Poland (Maciej Bielecki, Kamil Kuczynski, Lukasz Kwiatowski)

Heat 2
USA (Michael Blatchford, Adam Duvendeck, Giddeon Massie)
Czech Republic (Tomas Babek, Adam Ptacnik, Denis Spicka)

Heat 3
Greece (Athanasios Mantzouranis, Vasilieios Reppas, Panagiotis Voukelatos)
Malaysia (Mohd Azizulhasni Awang, Josiah Ng, Mohd Rizal Tisin)

Heat 4
China (Yong Feng, Wenhao Li, Lei Zhang)
Japan (Kiyofumi Nagai, Tomohiro Nagatsuka, Kazunari Watanabe)

Heat 5
Australia (Daniel Ellis, Mark French, Shane Kelly)
Russia (Sergey Polynskiy, Denis Dmitriev, Sergey Kucherov)

Heat 6
Great Britain (Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff)
Germany (Rene Enders, Maximilian Levy, Stefan Nimke)

Heat 7
France (Gregory Bauge, Kevin Sireau, Arnaud Tournant)
Netherlands (Theo Bos, Teun Mulder, Tim Veldt)

9.55am Men's individual pursuit qualifying

Competition rules Fastest eight riders progress to round one where qualifying times will determine the draw. It will be 1st v 8th, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th, 4th v 5th.

Start list
Heat 1
Fabien Sanchez (France)
Brett Lancaster (Australia)

Heat 2
Carlos Alzate (Colombia)
Steven Burke (Great Britain)

Heat 3
Antonio Tauler (Spain)
Jens Mouris (Netherlands)

Heat 4
Vitaly Popkov (Ukraine)
Alexandr Pliuschin (Moldova)

Heat 5
Sergei Escobar (Spain)
Alexander Serov (Russia)

Heat 6
Taylor Phinney (USA)
Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine)

Heat 7
Bradley McGee (Australia)
David O’Loughlin (Ireland)

Heat 8
Jenning Huizenga (Netherlands)
Hayden Roulston (New Zealand)

Heat 9
Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain)
Alexei Markov (Russia)

10.45am Men's team sprint first round

Competition rules Winners of the four heats progress to the medal races. The fastest two heat winners will contest gold and silver, the slowest two heat winners will go for bronze.

History repeating Great Britain will hope not to miss out as they did in Athens four years ago. Chris Hoy, Craig Maclean and Jamie Staff were only seventh in qualifying, which pitted them against eventual gold medalists Germany in the first round. With only the round winners going through to race for a medal, Germany won, eliminating Britain even though their time (44.075 seconds) was fast enough to win all three of the other heats and was in fact the second fastest of the entire competition.

Start list
To be decided

11am Women's indivudual pursuit qualifying

Competition rules Fastest eight riders progress to round one where qualifying times will determine the draw. It will be 1st v 8th, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th, 4th v 5th.

Start list
Heat 1
Evelyn Garcia (El Salvador)

Heat 2
Lada Kozlikova (Czech Republic)
Svetlana Pauliukaite (Lithuania)

Heat 3
Karin Thürig (Switzerland)
Verena Jooss (Germany)

Heat 4
Maria Luisa Calle (Colombia)
Vilija Sereikaite (Lithuania)

Heat 5
Lesya Kalitovska (Ukraine)
Alison Shanks (New Zealand)

Heat 6
Sarah Hammer (USA)
Wendy Houvenaghel (Great Britain)

Heat 7
Rebecca Romero (Great Britain)
Katie Mactier (Australia)

11.40am Team sprint finals

Start list
To be decided

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OLYMPIC GAMES 2008: GUIDE

Olympic Games 2008 homepage>>
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