After the bronze won in team sprint, Sébastien Vigier and Rayan Helal slipped into the 24 qualified for the individual sprint tournament. Coralie Demay and Mathilde Gros were not successful in the keirin series and will have to play a repechage.
Sébastien Vigier and Rayan Helal keep up the pace. The day after the bronze medal won alongside Florian Grengbo in team speed, the two French representatives in individual speed passed the pitfall of qualifying. While the Dutch Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen both set the fastest time (9”215) by beating the Olympic record which was held since Rio by Jason Kenny, who signed the eighth time in these qualifications, Sébastien Vigier signed the 10th fastest time (9”551) and will face in the 32nd finals the Canadian Hugo Barrette. Rayan Helal, meanwhile, did not shine, finishing this initial phase with the 20th time (9”669). The Habs will have to do battle with the Russian Denis Dmitriev, author of the fifth time (9”331), to avoid a draft.
Demay and Gros in keirin draft
If the Blues succeeded in qualifying the individual speed, the Blues were not in the mood during the keirin series. Engaged in the second race, Coralie Demay could not do better than fifth place when only the first two, the German Lea Sophie Friedrich and the Russian Daria Shmeleva, qualified directly for the quarter-finals. Mathilde Gros, specialist in the discipline and candidate for a place on the podium, was trapped in the fifth and final series. Well placed at the start of the last two laps, the Habs were locked in and, unable to recover, cut their effort and took last place, far behind the Canadian Lauriane Genest and the American Madalyn Godby. The two Habs will therefore have to go through a repechage round, of which only the first two will reach the quarter-finals.
