Third straight men's team sprint gold medal for Great Britain

Jason Kenny has a fourth Olympic Games gold medal after Great Britain swept aside New Zealand in the final of the men's team sprint in Rio just a few months after their disappointing showing at the World Championships on home soil on London.

The three-man team of Kenny, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner set a new Olympic record of 42.562 over the 750m in qualifying to set up a gold medal ride off on the Rio Velodrome.

"It was all a bit of a surprise really," Kenny said. "We've been going quite well in training so we had a rough idea of what we could do but we surpassed that in that first ride when we set that Olympic record."

Having seen New Zealand ride away to the title in March at the Worlds, Great Britain came out firing for the Olympic Games to set the new world record time. That ride boosted the trio's confidence of taking home the gold medal as Kenny explained but they still had work to beat the New Zealanders in the final, and did so by bettering their time to take the gold in 42.440 to set a new record.

"At that point I thought we could run away with it like London but then New Zealand came back at us and set the benchmark. We just went into the final with nothing to lose," added Kenny.

"The team event is always the best no doubt about it. You get to win it with your mates and I remember that with Chris and Jamie in Beijing and then again in London. It’s good to share it with your mates."

The Great Britain team joins the Italian team pursuit squads of the 1920's, and the Soviet Union teams of 1972-1980 in winning an Olympic track event on three successive occasions after Kenny, Chris Hoy and Jamie Staff won the 2008 Gold, and Kenny, Hoy and Hindes backed up the result four years later in London. 

Since its inception at the 2000 Games, Great Britain have now medalled on all but one occasion, 2004, winning the event on three of the five occasions it has been held.