RIO DE JANEIRO Aug 11 Britain set a track cycling world record in the women’s team pursuit on Thursday shortly after the men had clocked an Olympic best in team sprint qualifying.
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Alex Edmondson, Jack Bobridge, Michael Hepburn and Sam Welsford will meet second fastest qualifiers Denmark (3:55.396) in the other semi-final.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Bradley Wiggins and Britain are Olympic champions once again.
Britain finished in three minutes 51.943 seconds, narrowly outside the world record they set in winning gold at London 2012 of 3mins 51.659secs.
Laura Trott and Kate Archibald celebrate setting a world record.
The fastest two teams from the four heats will progress to the gold-medal final on Saturday evening, with the third and fourth-fastest teams going into the bronze-medal final.
The German team of Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel, the reigning Olympic champions, beat the Australian pair of Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton to claim bronze.
Mark Cavendish earlier this week suggested Wiggins was “super stressed” and had frozen the Manxman out of the team pursuit line-up.
Rowsell-Shand – who won gold at London 2012 and also has World, European and Commonwealth titles under her belt – will be delighted with the start that she and the team have made in their quest for more Olympic glory. He formed his own road team so that he could pick and choose specific events for his training, and spent long hours in the velodrome as the team perfected its technique.
New Zealand’s qualifying time of 3:55.977 was more than four seconds slower than Britain’s, who may be able to ride within themselves.
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Then it was a matter of putting their heads down and powering through the finish.
