GB pursuit teams have to settle for silvers

Britain's men and women had to settle for silver

Laura Trott (centre) had previously been unbeaten in the event (Getty Images)

Great Britain’s women vowed to respond to the disappointment of a first team pursuit loss in more than four years at the Track World Championships last night.

Britain’s men also had to settle for silver but will be far happier, after last year’s disappointment when they finished eighth.

Seeking a fifth successive gold in the event, the women’s team threatened their own world record in the second round on day two in Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines, near Paris. The quartet of Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell did so again in the final of the four-woman, 4km event, but Australia went even quicker to take gold in a new world record time.

Britain clocked 4min 16.702sec, but Australia finished in 4min 13.683sec, bettering the world record mark Britain set at altitude in Mexico in December 2013.

Trott, a four-time world champion and previously unbeaten in the event, said: “It’s disappointing. We are used to being on the top step so it was a different feeling. But we rode a PB, quicker than we’ve ever been before at sea level, and for us that is a massive step. It also shows we have work to do. You have to have four girls going good on the same day.”

Ed Clancy, Owain Doull, Andy Tennant and Steven Burke, who had surgery on a fractured collarbone last month, also won silver, being beaten in the final by New Zealand.