Individual Pursuit (3,000 metres), Women

This was the début for this event at the Olympics, although women had competed in World Championships in the pursuit since 1958. The early stars of the event never had a chance to compete at the Olympics, such as Britain’s great female rider Beryl Burton, Belgium’s Yvonne Reynders, and five-time World Champion Tamara Garkuskin of the Soviet Union. Since 1982 the event had been dominated by two women – France’s Jeannie Longo and America’s Rebecca Twigg. Twigg was World Champion in 1982, 1984-85 and 1987, while Longo won the Worlds in 1986 and 1988-89. But the 1990 World title went to Holland’s Leontien van Moorsel while the 1991 World Champion was Germany’s Petra Roßner.

Seventeen riders started the qualifying which was won surprisingly by Australia’s Kathy Watt, with Twigg second and Roßner third. The best race of the event occurred in the second quarter-final when Twigg and Longo were drawn against each other. Twigg advanced, winning by less than 4/100th’s of a second. But in the semi-finals, Watt won easily over Twigg and Roßner won the other semi to advance to the final. Watt startd the final quickly and built up of a lead of over 2.3 seconds. However, Roßner rode steadily and caught her with 2½ laps to go, eventually winning by almost two seconds.