Great Britain's men's team pursuit squad claimed a thrilling Olympic gold in a world record time on the second day of competition at the London 2012 Olympic Velodrome.
Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh and Steven Burke clocked three minutes 51.659 seconds to triumph by a supreme margin ahead of arch-rivals Australia. The quartet of Jack Bobridge, Glenn O'Shea, Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn finished with silver in 3mins 54.581secs.
The British quartet, who won Track Cycling World Championships gold in Melbourne in April, now have successfully defended the title won by Clancy, Thomas, Bradley Wiggins and Paul Manning in Beijing.
New Zealand's Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, Jesse Sergent and Aaron Gate claimed bronze in 3:55.952, with Russia's Evgeny Kovalev, Ivan Kovalev, Alexey Markov and Alexander Serov finishing fourth (3:58.282).
Great Britain's women advanced as they also claimed a world record in team pursuit qualifying. The World Championship-winning women's squad of Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell clocked three minutes 15.669 seconds to go through to Saturday's first round.
The British trio, who lowered their own best set in April in Melbourne, were set to meet the Canada in what is effectively a semi-final. Canada clocked 3mins 19.816secs to progress in fourth, while second-fastest qualifiers the United States (3:19.406) were set to meet Australia (3:19.719), the third quickest, in the second semi-final.
