British team win team sprint

The British track team has broken the world record in the Olympic team sprint on Friday. In the qualifying round, the squad of Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy clocked a phenomenal time of 42.95 seconds, for the first time ever completing the three laps under 43 seconds. Their average speed to beat the French and German teams in that order was 62.863 km/h.

The previous Olympic record for the team sprint was set by Germany at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Four years ago, the trio of Jens Fiedler, Stefan Nimke and Rene Wolff clocked 43.98 seconds to beat surprise finalists Japan. The fastest time of a team sprint at a World Championships was 43.27, clocked by the French team this year in Manchester.

In the finale, Great Britain then went on to beat France in 43.128 seconds. See Cyclingnews' full coverage of the first day of track cycling at the Beijing Olympics by clicking here.