Pursuit team breaks record

Great Britain’s women’s team pursuit quartet lowered their own world record by three seconds on the way to winning gold on the opening day of the Track Cycling World Cup in Aguascalientes, Mexico.A month after the squad set a then-best time of 4min 19.604sec in Manchester, Dani King, Joanna Rowsell, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald stopped the clock over the 4km distance in a stunning 4min 16.552sec as they defeated Canada in the final by almost seven seconds.Laura Trott did not race in the event, but the high altitude of the Aguascalientes track favoured a fast time and the team has now taken 10 seconds off the world record in a little over six weeks.It was the second time in the day that they had broken the record after setting a new best of 4min 19.115sec in qualifying. Australia took the bronze medal.Men take bronzeIn the men’s team pursuit, a youthful British quartet of Steven Burke, Jon Dibben, Owain Doull and Sam Harrison claimed bronze after qualifying third fastest in a hotly contested competition with a time of 3min 57.385sec.That placed them in the bronze-medal final against New Zealand, whom they comfortably defeated after making the catch. Australia clinched the gold medal ahead of silver-medallists Denmark.In the women’s team sprint, Britain’s Becky James and Jess Varnish claimed a silver medal.The duo qualified second fastest behind German pair Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte, who broke the world record in a time of 32.153 seconds and then would not be denied a second consecutive World Cup title in the gold-medal final. Russia beat China to bronze.Sprint medalsBritain then collected a fourth medal of the opening day when Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Matt Crampton won silver in the men’s team sprint.The trio was second fastest in qualifying behind Germany, who broke the world record in 41.871 seconds. The two teams then met in the gold-medal final in a re-run of the women’s event and, once again, it was the Germans who came out on top. Australia overcame the Netherlands to win bronze.In the men’s omnium, Britain’s Ed Clancy lies 11th after three of the six events. He won the first event, the flying lap, but then finished 13th in the points race and 16th in the elimination race.Meanwhile, Trott sat out the women’s team pursuit in order to ride in the points race, but could only finish 11th.