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Day 2 at the Rio Olympics velodrome will see Australian flag bearer Anna Meares team up with Stephanie Morton in the women’s team sprint while Great Britain go in as favourites in the men’s team pursuit. Join The Roar for live coverage from 5am (AEST).
There are two gold medals up for grabs with the women’s team sprint and men’s team pursuit up for grabs.
The men’s team pursuit had their qualifications yesterday with Great Britain’s team of Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull topping the leaderboard in a time of 3:51:943.
They will go up against New Zealand in the round races, while the other spots in the top four were taken by Australia’s team of Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn, Alexander Edmondson and Sam Welsford and Denmark who will square off in heat three.
The other qualifiers who will appear in the heats are Italy, Germany, Switzerland and China.
The other gold medal which will be claimed today comes in the women’s team sprint, with nine teams down for participation. Unlike the team pursuit, because it is over just two laps of the velodrome all three legs of the competition will be on the one day meaning there is no form guide to go off.
Australia’s team of Meares and Morton will come in with a chance of medalling in the event, but will face tough competition from other teams such as Russia, China, Germany, the Netherlands and France.
At the recent world championships in London, it was the Russian team of Daria Shmeleva and Anastasia Voynova who took home the gold after the Chinese team of Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi were relegated. They had qualified fastest however.
In the bronze medal race, Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel riding for Germany, outraced the Australians, but it was a performance below their best and they will be looking to go a step or two better here.
Also on will be the early exchanges of the men’s individual sprint – Jason Kenny of Great Britain walks into this race as the favourite, but he will be challenged strongly by Australian Matthew Glaetzer, Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands and Denis Dmitriev of Russia.
Regardless, it is only qualification so we will have a much better idea about what to expect tomorrow after they take to the track.
Prediction
Hard to go past Great Britain in the team pursuit – Meares and Morton should medal in the women’s team sprint but it won’t be gold with the Germans taking the crown while the Aussie men should handle themselves ok in the sprint but ultimately it’s hard to see Kenny not being the fastest qualifier there.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage from 5am (AEST) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde