The New Zealand women's team pursuit have spoken of their pride in their efforts after a tough two days of racing at the Olympics that culminated in them claiming a silver medal.
The Kiwi cyclists were narrowly beaten by the US in the gold medal race.
This result stacks up as the best finish for a Kiwi team pursuit at the Olympics, and is the first medal for a women's team in the discipline.
The team of Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman and Nicole Shields finished first in qualifying yesterday, breaking the national record in the process on a quick velodrome track.
Members of the team spoke with 1News after claiming the Olympic silver medal. (Source: 1News)
1News Olympic reporter Jordan Oppert spoke to the silver medallists in Paris following the final.
"It’s so surreal, this is something I’ve dreamed of my entire life so its going to take a few days to sink in but it’s been an amazing night for all of us," Shearman told 1News.
Shearman said it she was thankful to have her family in Paris so that she can share her medal success with them.
"You want to share that experience with them, to be here and have them all here to celebrate, it’s so cool."
Ally Wollaston had knee surgery earlier this year but managed to recover in time to make it to Paris.
"It's been a really tough two days of racing, we raced really hard in all three rounds but we expected that at the Olympics. We left it all out on the track tonight...I’m really proud of how we raced," said Wollaston.
They finished qualifying with a time of 4:04.679 to set up a first round meeting against Italy this morning. The Kiwis breezed through to the gold medal race as they beat the Italians by nearly three seconds with a time of 4:04.818.
They faced a tough challenge in the final with the US team leading by under a second after the first 1000m which they managed to push out to a 1.5 seconds heading into the last 1000m.
The Kiwis never gave up though as they knew they had a strong finish but just ran out of track as they managed to pull the time back to a 0.621 margin crossing the finish line.
Bryony Botha is the sole women's team pursuit rider left from the Tokyo Games team where they finished eighth.
Botha said they went out with a plan and were focused on the process during the final.
"We wanted to make sure we started off well and could deliver in the back end." said Botha. "We absolutely left everything out there so that’s all we could do."
The team is coached by Paul Manning, who has achieved great success in the sport, winning a gold medal with Great Britain’s men’s team pursuit in Beijing.
Shearman praised Manning for helping them reach Olympic success.
"He knows so much about what he’s doing, but he also gives us so much leadership and makes us learn how we are as riders to develop us from there. He's been a great asset for our team and we can’t thank him enough," said Shearman.
Sami Donnelly and Michaela Drummond were travelling reserves for the team and Botha said they played a key role in helping them
"It shows all the work we’ve put in as a team, these girls are amazing. Sami and Michaela were a crucial part of our team to get us here."
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