The Hindu : Sport : Britain wins men’s team pursuit gold

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Britain wins men’s team pursuit gold

— PHOTO: AFP

ALL SMILES: Britain’s Paul Manning, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins after winning the men’s team pursuit gold.

BEIJING: Britain won the Olympic men’s team pursuit gold medal on Monday, knocking nearly two seconds off the World record it set a day earlier.

The team of Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and individual pursuit gold-medallist Bradley Wiggins finished the 4,000m in 3 minutes, 53.314 seconds at the Laoshan Velodrome.

The four were dominant in the final against Denmark, almost catching the Danish by the end of the 4,000m to the cheers of the crowd.

The British team has knocked more than three seconds off the team pursuit World record in the past six months. The medal gave Britain 12 golds for the Olympics so far, already its best showing since 1920. New Zealand beat Australia to take the bronze medal.

Earlier, World champion Marianne Vos of the Netherlands won the women’s points race gold medal. Vos dominated the race and was the only rider to successfully lap the field.

She finished with 30 points, ahead of Yoanka Gonzalez of Cuba, who won the final sprint to take silver with 18 points. Leire Olaberria of Spain took the bronze with 13 points.

The low-scoring race was marred by a crash that took out Sarah Hammer of the United States, Satomi Wadami of Japan and Verena Jooss of Germany. Vos, 21, failed to take a medal in the road race and the road time-trial. It was also the first medal for the Dutch, who have suffered a string of problems and accidents. — AP

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