Sophie Capewell safely through in women's sprint
Sophie Capewell will continue her bid for a second Olympic medal on Saturday after reaching the third round of the women’s sprint.
The 25-year-old from Lichfield, part of the squad which claimed a brilliant gold in Monday’s team sprint at Paris 2024, must negotiate two more rounds to secure a spot in Sunday’s semi-final.
Capewell has never won a global medal in the individual sprint but is in excellent form and cannot be discounted after cruising through Friday's opening stages at the San-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
Her fellow team sprint gold medallist Emma Finucane, world champion in the individual discipline, also progressed serenely. The smart money is on at least one of them adding to a GB medal tally inside the velodrome which grew further yesterday with silver for Elinor Barker and Neah Evans in the madison and bronze for Jack Carlin in the men’s sprint.
Capewell, competing for the first time since Monday's gold, took to the track at the start of the afternoon for at a point when the Olympic record for the qualifying lap had been broken four times in the space of as many minutes, with Lea Friedrich then doing what appeared inevitable by breaking the world record.
