The Great Britain trio of Laura Trott, Dani King and Jo Rowsell (pictured) had started the day by watching the world record they had set at the World Cup in London seven weeks ago being eclipsed by the home team, prompting a standing ovation from the crowd.

But within ten minutes the Britons also bettered their London mark of 3min 18.184sec to 3:16.850, and four hours later in the final they overcame the Australian team in lowering the record to 3:15.720.

Performance director Dave Brailsford commented: "Australia went out hard to unsettle us maybe, to throw us off our game plan.

"But the girls held their nerve and the time is unbelievable.

"We thought for the last 12 months that it would take 3.15 to win in London but now it will take a lot more, depending on conditions."

With five laps left in the final the Australian team was 1.3sec ahead, but the margin was reduced, with Trott putting in a particularly strong effort to reduce the margin to just over 0.3sec.

The British then maintained momentum to register a morale-boosting pre-London 2012 win.


"I can believe how quick we are going to be absolutely honest," said King.

"A few months ago my best time was 3:22 and now I have just been in a team that has ridden 3:15.

"The times are just tumbling down.

"We watched the men's race together as a team back in the hotel last night and it was totally inspiring, it gave me goosebumps, and we just wanted to go out there and do something similar tonight."

The race for bronze in the women's discipline was won by Canada, whose trio of Tara Whitten, Jasmin Glaesser and Gillian Carleton beat New Zealand's Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielson and Alison Shanks.


Britain's Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton (pictured left) advanced to the semi-finals of the women's sprint.

After successfully negotiating the early rounds, Pendleton met Virginie Cueff (pictured right) of France in the best-of-three quarterfinal.

In the men's omnium – which will make its Olympic debut in London – Great Britain's 2010 world champion Ed Clancy retained his overall lead in the six-discipline event as he finished seventh in the points race.

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