Britain breaks world record to win men's team pursuit

2008-08-18 10:41:04 GMT2008-08-18 18:41:04 (Beijing Time) Xinhua English

The team of Great Britain competes during the men's team pursuit gold medal final of the Beijing Olymic Games cycling-track event at Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing, China, Aug. 18, 2008. The British team claimed the title in this event and broke the world record.(Xinhua Photo)

The team of Great Britain competes during the men's team pursuit gold medal final of the Beijing Olymic Games cycling-track event at Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing, China, Aug. 18, 2008. The British team claimed the title in this event. (Xinhua/Liang Qiang)

Paul Manning, Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins (Photo credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- British cyclists stunned the world by breaking their own world record to take the gold of men's team pursuit at the Beijing Olympic Games in Lanshan velodrome.

Two-time Olympic pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins' dream came true after he paced the British quartet to a new world record of three minutes 53.314 seconds in the final, beating Denmark by 6.7 seconds to the second place.

Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas and Paul Manning came over the finish line together in world record time, having raced as a trio for the final three and a half laps after losing Wiggins, something allowed in an event where the clock is stopped when the third member of the team completes the course.

Denmark took the silver, while New Zealand got the Bronze after defeating Australia earlier.

Britain dominated the track by winning five golds so far.

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