Battle of Honey Springs

The women's sprint at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 19 at the Laoshan Velodrome.

This track cycling event consisted of numerous rounds. The competition began with a time trial over 200 metres. The top 12 cyclists in that qualifying round were seeded into the 1/8 finals. There, they raced one-on-one. The six winners advanced to the quarterfinals, with the six losers getting another chance at the repechage. This repechage consisted of three-cyclist heats, with the two winners moving on to the quarterfinals.

Beginning with the quarterfinals, the head-to-head competitions switched to a best-of-three format. That format was also used for the semifinals and final. In addition, the bronze medal competition was a best-of-three match between the semifinal losers. The classification race for 5th to 8th places was a single race with all four cyclists competing.[1]

Preliminaries

[2] 200 metre time trial. All twelve cyclists advanced to the first round; the preliminary was purely for seeding.

Rank Rider Time Average Speed (km/h)
1  Victoria Pendleton (GBR) 10.963 OR 65.675
2  Guo Shuang (CHN) 11.106 64.829
3  Anna Meares (AUS) 11.140 64.631
4  Willy Kanis (NED) 11.167 64.475
5  Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU) 11.222 64.159
6  Clara Sanchez (FRA) 11.365 63.352
7  Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) 11.372 63.313
8  Jennie Reed (USA) 11.400 63.157
9  Lisandra Guerra (CUB) 11.462 62.816
10  Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) 11.533 62.429
11  Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS) 11.544 62.370
12  Sakie Tsukuda (JPN) 12.134 59.337

First round

[3] The twelve cyclists were paired based on their preliminary round rankings, 1 vs. 12, 2 vs. 11, and so on, in head-to-head 200 metre matches, with the winners advancing to the second round and the losers to the repechage.

Repechage

[4] The sixlosers from the first round were put into two three-rider 200 metre matches, with the winner of each advancing to the next round.

Quarterfinals

[5] The eight cyclists qualified this far were paired for a best two-out-of-three series of 200 metre races. None of the pairings required a third race.

Semifinals

[6] The four cyclists qualified this far were paired again for a best two-out-of-three series of 200 metre races. Guo Shuang was relegated for having deemed to have illegally manoeuvred Anna Meares, after having jostled her in their third and decisive sprint.[7]

Match 1
Name Time (Race 1) Time (Race 2)
 Victoria Pendleton (GBR) 11.537 11.885
 Willy Kanis (NED)
Match 2
Name Time (Race 1) Time (Race 2) Time (Race 3)
 Anna Meares (AUS) 11.578 11.617
 Guo Shuang (CHN) 11.629 REL

9th—12th place classification race

[8] During the same session as the semifinals, the four cyclists who were eliminated in the repechage were put into a single four-rider 200 metre race to determine exact placings from ninth to twelfth.

Classification race
Name Time Average speed (km/h) Rank
 Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS) 12.192 59.055 9
 Lisandra Guerra (CUB) 10
 Yvonne Hijgenaar (NED) 11
 Sakie Tsukuda (JPN) 12

Finals

5th—8th place classification race

[9] In the same session as the finals, the four cyclists who lost in the quarterfinals were put into one four-rider 200 metre race to determine exact placings from fifth to eighth.

Classification race
Name Time Average speed (km/h) Rank
 Clara Sanchez (FRA) 12.264 58.708 5
 Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR) 6
 Jennie Reed (USA) 7
 Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU) REL 8

[10] The winners from the semifinals were paired to race for gold and silver, and the losers from that round raced for bronze. Each match was again the best two-out-of-three 200 metre races.

Bronze medal match
Name Time (Race 1) Time (Race 2) Rank
 Guo Shuang (CHN) 11.420 11.617 3
 Willy Kanis (NED) 4
Gold medal match
Name Time (Race 1) Time (Race 2) Rank
 Victoria Pendleton (GBR) 11.363 11.118 1
 Anna Meares (AUS) 2

References

  1. ^ "Competition Format - the Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games". Archived from the original on 2008-08-15. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  2. ^ "Cycling - Track Women's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". results.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Cycling - Track Women's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". results.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Cycling - Track Women's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". results.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Cycling - Track Men's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". results.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 22 August 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  6. ^ "Cycling - Track Women's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". results.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  7. ^ "China's Guo Shuang claims first cycling medal for hosts". China Daily. 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  8. ^ "Cycling - Track Women's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". results.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 7 September 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  9. ^ "Cycling - Track Women's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
  10. ^ "Cycling - Track Women's Sprint Results - the official website of the BEIJING 2008 Olympic Games". results.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 24 August 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2022.