Brits win women's team pursuit gold in record time

Britain successfully defended their 3 km team pursuit title in a world record time in the final against Australia at the world track cycling championships Thursday. The trio of Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Danielle King powered over 12 laps of the Hisense Arena track to clock 3min 15.720sec, beating the world record of 3:16.850 they had set earlier in qualifying. Australia finished in 3:16.943 to take the silver while Canada (3:19.529) won the bronze after beating New Zealand (3:19.847). The hosts, represented by Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic, lifted the roof at the Hisense Arena earlier Thursday when they bettered Britain's world mark of 3:18.148 -- set six weeks ago in London -- in a time of 3:17.053. Britain, however, went on to reclaim the record in an improved time of 3:16.850 to top the qualifying session. In the final Australia signalled their intentions early, going out fast and taking a 1.3sec lead after four laps of the track. That deficit came down to just eight tenths four laps further on and, as the Aussies tired, the British turned on the gas in the final four laps to leave Australia at the finish. "The Australians went out fast, but we stuck to our plan to go out steady and hold pace," said Rowsell, who won the team gold in 2008 and 2009 but was left out the final team that won gold last year. It is Britain's fourth world title in five years in the event, which made its worlds debut in 2008 and will make its Olympic debut in London. Rowsell added: "I'm absolutely over the moon. I can't believe I'm world champion again - it's been three years. I so badly wanted that rainbow jersey back. "To see the world record broken before our ride is always quite tough; we saw that happen to the team sprint girls yesterday. "We had to keep our heads, do our own ride. We went out rode to a schedule and actually beat it. "It was great to go into the final as fastest qualifiers and we knew we had more in the tank. "I felt good in the final, Laura was awesome, Dani was absolutely awesome as well."