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Women's individual pursuit at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Medalists
Sarah Ulmer   New Zealand   Katie Mactier   Australia   Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel   Netherlands
«2000	2008»

Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Road cycling
Road race		men		women
Time trial		men		women
Track cycling
Individual pursuit		men		women
Team pursuit		men
Sprint		men		women
Team sprint		men
Time trial		men		women
Points race		men		women
Keirin		men
Madison		men
Mountain biking
Cross-country		men		women

The women's Individual Pursuit at the 2004 Summer Olympics (Cycling) was an event that consisted of matches between two cyclists. The riders would start at opposite ends of the track. They had 12 laps (3 kilometres) in which to catch the other cyclist. If neither was caught before one had gone 12 laps, the times for the distance were used to determine the victor. In the twelve matches of the 2004 event, one cyclist was lapped.

Records

Ulmer held the world record coming into this event, which she set at the world championships in Melbourne in May 2004. She reduced the world record by more than 6 seconds during this event. All three of the medallists in Athens beat the previous world record.

WR denotes world record
Q denotes qualification for next round

Qualifying round

The riders raced against each other in matches of two. Qualification for the next round was not based on who won those matches, however. The cyclists with the eight fastest times advanced, regardless of whether they won or lost their match. This resulted in the first two heats not having any riders advance while the next four heats each had both winners and losers advance.

First round

In the first round of actual match competition, cyclists were seeded into matches based on their times from the qualifying round. The fastest cyclist faced the eighth-fastest, the second-fastest faced the third, and so forth. Winners advanced to the finals while losers in each match received a final ranking based on their time in the round.

Finals

In the women's individual pursuit finals, the current world champion and world record holder, Sarah Ulmer from New Zealand, set a new world record in the final for a time of 3:24.537 for the gold medal. It is the first time New Zealand has ever won a cycling gold medal. The Australian, Katie MacTier (3:27.650), set a very fast first 1000 m of 1:10.618, with a lead of one second, but Ulmer reversed this lead in the second 1000 m, and went on to win the pursuit by 3 seconds. Netherlands rider and former world champion, Leontien Ziljaard-van Moorsel rode a time of 3:27.037 for the bronze defeating Australian, Katherine Bates (3:31.715)

Gold/Silver medal race Pos Rider Country Time 1 Sarah Ulmer  New Zealand 3:24.537 WR 2 Katie Mactier  Australia 3:27.650

Bronze medal race Pos Rider Country Time 1 Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel  Netherlands 3:27.037 2 Katherine Bates  Australia 3:31.715

Final classification

Pos.	Athlete	NOC
1.	Sarah Ulmer	New Zealand
2.	Katie MacTier	Australia
3.	Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel	Netherlands
4.	Katherine Bates	Australia
5.	Karin Theurig	Switzerland
6.	Olga Slyusareva	Russia
7.	Elena Chalykh	Russia
8.	Emma Davies	United Kingdom
9.	Maria Luisa Calle	Colombia
10.	Erin Mirabella	United States
11.	Lenka Valova	Czech Republic
12.	Evelyn Garcia	El Salvador

References

• Official Olympic Report