GB men's pursuit squad claim cycling gold

Great Britain’s men’s team pursuit squad claimed a thrilling Olympic gold in a world record time on the second day of competition at the London 2012 Olympic Velodrome.

Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh and Steven Burke clocked three minutes 51.659 seconds to triumph by a supreme margin ahead of arch-rivals Australia.

Australia’s Jack Bobridge, Glenn O’Shea, Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn finished with silver in 3mins 54.581secs.

The British quartet, who won Track Cycling World Championships gold in Melbourne in April, now have successfully defended the title won by Clancy, Thomas, Bradley Wiggins and Paul Manning in Beijing.

New Zealand’s Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan, Jesse Sergent and Aaron Gate claimed bronze in 3:55.952, with Russia’s Evgeny Kovalev, Ivan Kovalev, Alexey Markov and Alexander Serov finishing fourth (3:58.282).

Clancy’s focus will now turn to the six-discipline omnium, which is set to begin tomorrow.