Wednesday 2 March 2016 20:56, UK
Sir Bradley Wiggins propelled Great Britain’s men to the fastest time in team pursuit qualifying on the opening day of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in London on Wednesday.
Wiggins, Steven Burke, Owain Doull and Jon Dibben stopped the clock on the 4km distance in 3min 55.664sec, which was 0.2 seconds quicker than second-placed Australia and 1.4 seconds ahead of defending world champions New Zealand in third.
Wiggins almost dropped his team-mates on the second of two huge turns on the front as he marked his return to the scene of his successful UCI Hour Record attempt last summer with an ominous show of strength.
Britain will now face Italy, who qualified 2.1 seconds slower, in Thursday afternoon's first round. The winner will go on to face either Australia or New Zealand in the gold-medal final later that evening.
As well as regaining the world title, Britain are also hoping to break their own world record of 3min 51.659sec on Thursday.
Elsewhere on the opening day, Australia's Rebecca Wiasak defended her individual pursuit title by beating Poland's Malgorzata Wojtyra in the gold-medal final, while Canada's Annie Foreman-Mackey beat the United States' Ruth Winder to bronze.
Spain's Sebastian Mora produced a late attack to win the men's scratch race ahead of runner-up Ignacio Prado, of Mexico, and third-placed Claudio Imhof, of Switzerland.
Russian duo Anastasiia Voinova and Daria Shmeleva won gold in the women's team sprint. They were actually beaten by China's Jinjie Gong and Tianshi Zhong in the final, but the Chinese pair were later relegated for an illegal change. Germany's Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte won bronze.
In the men's team sprint, New Zealand trio Ed Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell took gold ahead of the Netherlands' Nils van 't Hoenderdaal, Jeffrey Hoogland and Matthijs Buchli. Germany took bronze.
