Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin stormed to a sensational team sprint silver medal as national records fell in the team pursuits in another scintillating evening at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome. 

Men’s team sprint

Yesterday saw the British trio clock 41.862 to qualify second, putting them up against seventh placed Germany in their first round heat this afternoon.

Lowe, Turnbull and Carlin stormed to a time of 41.819, with Carlin putting in his signature last lap flier to comfortably confirm their place in the gold medal final.

The Dutch trio of Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland broke their own world record in their first-round ride against Canada, clocking a scintillating 41.191 to face Team GB for gold.

A huge start from Lowe saw the trio fire out the gate in a ferocious first lap. Turnbull did a massive effort on the change, and left it to Carlin to bring it home in a sensational last lap, but the Dutch were unstoppable, claiming another world record time of 40.949 for the gold. The British team clocked a new national record of 41.814 to take an incredible silver medal.

Having won a silver in the team sprint at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Carlin said:

“I’m feeling really good. We came and delivered and it’s probably the best we could have done on the day. I think Hamish rode really flat which in Tokyo, I didn’t do for Jason [Kenny] and he paid the consequences. I obviously came off fresher but that’s down to Ham’s delivery into my lap and it made my lap look good! Two boys who came in without any experience really at this level and they’ve really stepped up and I’m proud of them both."

Speaking on his Olympic debut, Turnbull added:

“I’m buzzing! We weren’t expecting to fight for gold, we were chasing the bronze really. To get into the gold final, all the stress was off so we could really enjoy it and soak up the crowd and show everyone what we could do without any pressure on our backs. A huge credit to Ed because he doesn’t make it easy as a fast boy to follow in that first lap. We put three clean rides together and I think that’s what got us the silver medal – being clean across the day.”

Lowe said:

“Ecstatic! Silver medal is something that I didn’t think was possible going into this. Second place – I'll definitely take that to the Dutch. A huge credit to these boys and I’m so pleased.”

Men’s team pursuit

Having qualified second quickest yesterday in a British record time of 3:43.241, the squad of Ethan Vernon, Ollie Wood and Ethan Hayter lined up for their first round heat against Denmark, with Charlie Tanfield coming in for Dan Bigham. 

The British men smashed it out the gate, putting in a hugely impressive start in the first kilometre to be flying quicker than the Danes. At the halfway mark, Denmark pulled it back and were over half a second up coming into the final kilometre, but Team GB turned on the engine and fired it home. 

The British boys tussled back the lead in the final two laps, crossing the line in 3:42.151 to set another national record and confirm their place in the gold medal ride off tomorrow.

They will face Australia, who beat Italy in a world record time, clocking 3:40.730 for the seventh world record in the track cycling at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.  

Women’s team pursuit

After national records were broken by multiple countries in qualifying, the British team of Josie Knight, Elinor Barker, Jess Roberts and Anna Morris followed suit as they kicked off their Olympic campaign.

After an initial false start, Morris thrashed it out the gate to get the squad cleanly away, as the first kilometre saw the quartet accelerate hard. With 2.5km gone, the riders were a second and a half behind the time from New Zealand, with Morris swinging up after her great efforts. Crossing the line in a national record time of 4:06.710, the British squad sailed through to tomorrow’s first round heats in third place behind New Zealand and the USA, with Italy in fourth.

The 12th day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will see the team pursuit competitions come to a conclusion, with both the men’s and women’s finals. Jack Carlin and Hamish Turnbull will compete individually in the men’s sprint qualifying, and Katy Marchant and Emma Finucane return to the track in women’s keirin first round.

You can watch on Discovery+ or BBC from 11:45 BST and follow the results on the British Cycling social media channels.