Brit cyclists take gold and smash record

GREAT BRITAIN won a third gold medal at the Olympic Velodrome as Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald triumphed in the women’s team pursuit.

A day after Britain’s men won in the four-rider, four-kilometres event, there was a victory in the corresponding women’s event.

The British quartet made it three rides, three world records in claiming a stunning victory in four minutes 10.236 seconds.

The United States, the world champions, were a distant second.

It was Trott’s third Olympic gold – the most by a British female – and Rowsell-Shand’s second. The pair won gold in the event at London 2012 on ‘Super Saturday’, alongside Dani King.

A delighted Trott said: “It feels incredible. You try not to think about it coming into a race but people were tweeting me and writing articles about it.

“And I just thought ‘I don’t want to think about this but this would be a really nice achievement if I could do that’.

“It almost feels like I shouldn’t have achieved it in a way. I still feel like that young girl that started down at Welwyn Wheelers.”

Bronze went to Canada ahead of New Zealand.

Britain clocked a world record in qualifying and the semi-final, their second mark of 4:12.152 beating the previous best the USA had set moments earlier in their own semi-final.

The event has since been expanded to feature four riders over 4km since London 2012, and Britain stuck with the same quartet throughout, leaving Ciara Horne in reserve.

There was further medal success on the track for Team GB when Becky James picked up a silver in the Keirin with Elis Ligtlee of the Netherlands taking the gold.

Meanwhile, Team GB are guaranteed another gold medal in the Olympic Velodrome tonight after Jason Kenny and Scot Callum Skinner advanced to make it an all-British final of the men’s sprint.