Britain's women's team pursuit squad christened the Rio de Janeiro Olympic velodrome with a world record on the first day of the track cycling program Thursday. Shortly before the British men won gold in the team sprint in an Olympic record, the quartet of Laura Trott, Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker and Joanna Rowsell-Shand, clocked four minutes, 13.260 in the qualifying round of the 4,000m event. It surpassed the mark of Australia (4:13.683) set at last year's world championships and threw down the gauntlet to world champion the United States who was second quickest. Australia was third-fastest qualifiers. Britain was also fastest in the men's team pursuit qualifying with Bradley Wiggins, bidding for a British record eighth Olympic medal, looking in fine fettle. Wiggins, who won road time trial gold in 2012 weeks after winning the Tour de France, returned to the track this year and was part of the squad beaten by Australia in the world championships in London. Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven Burke threatened the British world record set at London 2012 as the new track proved faster than some had been suggested in the build-up. Earlier, British cyclist Jason Kenny celebrated a fourth Olympic gold medal as Britain edged world champion New Zealand to win the men's track cycling team sprint. Kenny hailed teammates Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner after Britain set a new Olympic record with their time of 42.440sec to edge him closer to British legend Chris Hoy's haul of six golds. New Zealand's Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Ed Dawkins came home in 42.542sec at the Rio Olympic Velodrome while France beat Australia earlier in the bronze-medal match. Britain has now won sprint team gold in three consecutive Olympics while Thursday's dramatic victory comes just five months it finished sixth at the Track World Championships in London. Both Kenny and Skinner admitted that the quality of their performance in Rio had come as a little bit of a surprise. "We'd been running quite well in training so we had a rough idea about what we could do. But it has genuinely come as a surprise," said Kenny. Skinner said the British team had been "on the back foot" coming into the Games. "That's kind of what makes the win more special," he told reporters. "We set an Olympic world record in the final and beat the world champions. It's just incredible. There was no better way to win it," he beamed.
