British track sprinter Emma Finucane broke the flying 200m world record by more than two hundredths of a second on Monday morning.
The 23-year-old, an Olympic champion and three-time world champion, clocked a time of 9.759 seconds in qualifying for the individual sprint at the UEC European Track Championships in Konya, Turkey. She became only the third woman in history to go under 10 seconds in the event, doing so with an average speed was 73.78kph (45.84mph)
The previous womenโs world record was held by Chinaโs Yuan Liying, who recorded a 9.976 last March at the same velodrome in Konya. The track, located at 1,200m above sea level, is wider and steeper than others, and is where Matthew Richardson set the menโs world record at 8.857 seconds last August.
โWhen I saw [Richardson] go sub-nine, and smash the world record, I was like, โAh, I want to do itโ,โ Finucane told Cycling Weekly last month. โI want to try and break a world record. I want to try and go sub-10.โ
Earlier on Monday morning, Finucane’s GB team-mate Sophie Capewell came within six hundredths of a second of Liyingโs benchmark as the second woman ever to go sub-10.
โIโve seen on Instagram that a few girls are going to try and do it,โ the 23-year-old said last month. โI saw Lea [Sophie Freidrich, former flying 200m world record holder] put something on Instagram like, โWatch this space.โ Then obviously Hetty [van de Wouw]. There are a few girls eyeing up this sub-10. Obviously Yuan [Liying] has already done it, so I think letโs just see where that record can go. Thatโs a goal of mine.โ
Following Finucaneโs successful attempt, the organiser of the European Championships, the UEC, wrote on social media: โHistory rewritten in Konya.โ
British Cycling posted on Instagram: โKonya believe it! Emma Finucane knocks nearly a quarter of a second off the womenโs flying 200m time-trial record with a time of 9.759.โ
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