By Martyn Herman
TOKYO (Reuters) – When Britain’s male 4km team pursuit squad broke the world record twice in one day to claim gold in Rio five years ago, it seemed the bar had been raised towards its limit. Ed Clancy, Owain Doull, Steven Burke, and Bradley Wiggins clocked 3:50.265 to narrowly beat Australia and give Britain a third successive Olympic gold.
Their winning time was only 1.4 seconds faster than their previous world record set at London 2012, which makes what has happened since all the more remarkable. Australia was the first to raise their game, dropping the world record to 3:49.80 and then 3:48.01 in 2018 and 2019.
Then came the Danes. At the 2020 world championships in Berlin, the Danish squad didn’t just break the record. They obliterated it three times in two days on the way to the gold medal. When Lasse Norman Hansen, Julius Johansen, Frederik Rodenberg, and Rasmus Pedersen finished, the new track cycling blue riband event benchmark was 3:44.67.
Britain’s women’s world record of 4:10.236 set at the 2016 Olympics, where they lowered the mark three times, persists, but the new ground could be broken this week in Izu’s Olympic Velodrome. Clancy, bidding for a fourth Olympic gold medal in the team pursuit, admits Denmark has moved the game on.
“They are kings of team pursuit right now. But this is the Great Britain team, and we have done everything in the past and set that bar. We still want to win. This is the most committed team I’ve been with,” said the 36-year-old, who will be the old head alongside Ethan Hayter, Ethan Vernon, and Matt Walls.
But to retain their crown, Britain is likely to go at least seven seconds quicker than they did in Berlin last year when they outclassed Denmark, New Zealand and Italy. Dan Bigham, the former British team member, and aerodynamic whiz-kid, who defected across to help the Danes in 2019 with startling results, said the world record would be lowered in Izu.
“I know that the original Team GB goal for Tokyo was it would take 3:48 to win the team pursuit, but the goalposts have moved,” Bigham told Reuters. “I think (the record) has to go. I think it will, anyway. The track itself and conditions look comparable to Berlin because people physiologically will be in better shape, and the track conditions will be quick.
“I expect it will go in men’s and women’s.” Joanna Rowsell, a key cog in the British team pursuit squad to win gold in Rio, is convinced the game has moved on. “The only way it won’t happen is if the track conditions are terrible in Tokyo, which I’m sure they won’t be,” Rowsell, an analyst for Discovery, told Reuters.
“I’ve had a cheeky extra year as world record holder with the cancellation of the Games, but I’m preparing myself mentally for it to go! I think the question is more about how much than if. Will it be 4:08 or 4:07?” Some clues will emerge on Monday when the team pursuit qualifiers are scheduled. (Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
