Olympic Cycling: GB break women's team pursuit world record
Saturday 13 August 2016 21:40, UK
Great Britain broke the women’s team pursuit world record on the way to qualifying for Saturday night's Olympic gold-medal final in Rio.
Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald stopped the clock in 4min 12.152sec in their first-round victory over Canada, which was 0.130 seconds faster than the previous record set by the United States in their win over Australia just a few minutes earlier.
Britain and the United States will now race for gold at about 9.10pm BST in what could be one of the closest and fiercely contested finals in women's team pursuit history.
Britain have now broken world records in both their rides at the 2016 Olympics, having also set a new best in qualifying on Thursday, and it looks almost certain they will have to break it again to beat the Americans to gold. Canada will face New Zealand for the bronze.
Earlier in the afternoon session of day three of the track cycling, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner booked places in the quarter-finals of the men's individual sprint by winning their last-16 heats.
Kenny will meet Australia's Patrick Constable, while Skinner will face China's Xu Chao in best-of-three contests.
Meanwhile, Becky James is through to the second round of the women's keirin after winning her first-round heat.
