Canadian women's team pursuit squad advances in cycling
Canada faces world-record holders from Britain in next round
By Callum Ng, CBC Sports
Canada's women's team pursuit squad advanced out of Thursday's qualifying in fourth place, setting up a difficult race against Great Britain for Saturday.
- Georgia Simmerling's quest for Olympic medal takes her on historic road
- SCHEDULE AND RESULTS: Women's team pursuit
The Brits advanced first, setting a new world record in the process with a blazing time of four minutes 13.260 seconds.
The Canadian team of Allison Beveridge, Laura Brown, Jasmin Glaesser, and Georgia Simmerling were over six-seconds behind Great Britain with a time of 4:19.599.
"I think we're a little bit disappointed," said Glaesser, 24, an Olympic bronze medallist in this event from 2012.
"We know we have more in the bag."
The Canadian women may pay for their disappointing performance.
After the qualifying session, the event structure pits the top seed (Britain) against the fourth seed (Canada), and the second seed against the third in what is called the first round, which takes place on Saturday.
The winner of those two races will go on to compete for gold, which means Canada must beat the new-world record holders in order for a chance at the top step of the podium.
"We're going to have to put up a good fight to get through to the gold medal ride and that's always been our focus here," said Beveridge. "We know it will take a big effort but we're willing to out there and see what we have."
The United States raced to 4:14.286 for second, while Australia overcame a training crash in 4:19.059 for third. They will battle each other on Saturday for the other berth in the gold-medal final.