Great Britain claimed their second track cycling gold of the week in Rio, after beating Australia to victory in the Men's Team Pursuit

Following on from the Men's Team Sprint gold last evening, the team of Bradley Wiggins, Owain Doull, Ed Clancy and Steven Burke won gold with a new world record time of 3:50.265.

The win is Britain's third in the Team Pursuit over the past three Olympic Games, and in the process Wiggins has become the most decorated British athlete of all-time at the Olympics after picking up his eighth medal from five different Games. 

Great Britain flying around the Rio Velodrome (image via: mirror.co.uk)

Brits come from behind to claim dramatic vcitory

Having qualified for the final thanks to a world record of 3:50.570 in the semi-final victory over New Zealand, Britain were heavy favourites for gold, but Australia had a trump card in the form of Alex Bobridge

Injured earlier in the week, Bobridge didn't take part in the first two rounds of competition, but was part of the Australain quartet alongside Alex Edmondson, Michael Hepburn and Sam Welsford, and it was them who had the much better start. 

After Ed Clancy had a difficult start when leaving the blocks, it was Australia who opened up an early lead and by the halfway point they had opened up a 0.695 gap on the British team. 

With around six laps to go, Britain had started to reel in their opponents and soon had another feather in their cap when the Australia's lost one of their four riders.

The gap continued to shorten and the with three laps to go Britain lost their fourth rider and disaster looked to have struck when Doull lost the back-wheel of his two teammates up ahead.

With the finishing line approaching, Doull put in one final surge and got back on, and the Brits crossed the line with an 0.7 margin of victory to give Sir Bradley his eighth Olympic medal, six of which are gold. 

Revenge was duly gained from last year's World Championship defeat, and the British track cycling team made it two golds from two in men's competition so far. 

Danes claim pursuit bronze, while Chinese duo win women's sprint

Denmark claimed the bronze medal in a time of 3:53.789 ahead of New Zealand after both sides fractured to three riders in the middle section of the 4km's. 

The Chinese duo claimed gold in the Women's Sprint (image via: Phil Walter/Getty)

The other gold medal in Friday's racing went to China, who beat Russia in the final of the Women's Team Sprint with a time of 32.107. The duo of Jinjie Gong and Tianshi Zhong got the World Record in their semi-final win, before smashing the Russians in the final to make up for their disappoint in being disqualified from last year's World Championships. 

In the men's sprint, British duo Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner are the top two seeds going into the quarter-finals which take place tomorrow. 

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