Despite its name, it is not a conventional cycling sprint event – it is a three-rider team time trial held over three laps of a velodrome.
This was set by the Netherlands team of Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
[1] The women's world record of 45.186 seconds was set by the British team of Emma Finucane, Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell also at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The third rider needs good endurance qualities to maintain high speed to the finish.
The aim of the qualifying round is to simply set the fastest possible time out of all the teams.