| Women's Sprint at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad |
| Venue | Laoshan Velodrome |
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| Dates | August 17 (preliminaries—1st round)
August 18 (quarterfinals—final) |
|---|
| Competitors | 12 from 11 nations |
|---|
| Winning time | 11.363/11.118 |
|---|
| Medalists |
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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.
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
- Match 2
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
Finals
[9] 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
- Gold medal match
5th—8th place classification race
[10] 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
References
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Victoria Pendleton (GBR)
Guo Shuang (CHN)
Anna Meares (AUS)
Willy Kanis (NED)
Simona Krupeckaitė (LTU)
Clara Sanchez (FRA).svg.png){kind=small}
Natallia Tsylinskaya (BLR)
Jennie Reed (USA)
Lisandra Guerra (CUB)
Svetlana Grankovskaya (RUS)
Sakie Tsukuda (JPN)
