Germany wins team pursuit gold in new world record

Germany has won the women's team pursuit in the track cycling at Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The Germany team of Franziska Brausse, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein and Mieke Kroeger smashed the world record to defeat the two-time defending Olympic champions Great Britain.

The German’s time of 4:04.242 was almost two seconds quicker than the world record that they set in the heats (4:06.166).

Great Britain’s dominance in the Olympic velodrome appears to be waning as their women's team pursuit team were beaten decisively into second place at the Izu Velodrome.

British cyclists have proved to be a regular source of gold medals at recent Olympic Games, securing multiple cycling titles in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.

But on this occasion, the British team – Katie Archibald, Laura Kenny, Josie Knight and Elinor Barker - finished the race an incredible 6.365 seconds behind the winners.

Germany, who finished ninth at 2016 Olympic Games, got off to a flying start and never looked like being caught.

After the first 1,000 metres, they had a lead of 1.316 seconds over the British cyclists.

The lead continued to grow as the race went on. It was by 2.178 seconds at 2,000 metres, 3.676 at 3,000 metres.

Great Britain continued to fade as the Germans pressed on to complete the 4,000-metre course in a time that is almost six seconds faster than the world record set by Team GB in Rio in 2016.

In the bronze-medal race, Team USA defeated Canada.

The USA team of Megan Jastrab, Jennifer Valente, Chloe Dygert and Emma White recorded a time of 4:08.040 to finish 2.512 seconds ahead of Canada.