Olympics: Britain Break Cycling Team Pursuit World Record

RIO DE JANEIRO, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Augst,2016) - Britain's quartet broke their own team pursuit world record at the Olympic track cycling tournament in Rio on Friday. Bradley Wiggins, Edward Clancy, Steven Burke and Owain Doull set a new mark of 3min 50.570sec, taking more than a second off their time from London four years ago. It means Wiggins will claim an eighth Olympic medal, taking him past the British record mark of seven he holds with Chris Hoy, another track cyclist. Wiggins has already four Olympic titles to his name, two in the individual pursuit, one in the team pursuit and one in the time-trial on the road. Britain finished the 4km race almost three seconds quicker than Australia, whom they will meet in the final later on Friday.

They had already been around four seconds faster than the other teams in Thursday's qualifying. Up against New Zealand in Friday's semi-final, Britain were a second ahead after 1.5km and had more than doubled that by the 3km mark. They kept extending their advantage all the way to the line. Denmark led Australia all throughout the other semi-final, holding a lead of more than seven tenths of a second at one point. But the Aussies put in a strong final kilometre to overturn the deficit. Britain beat Australia in the Olympic final in London but the Aussies have won three world titles since then, with New Zealand taking the 2015 world crown.