Laura Trott leads GB back into contention for bronze

Britain had won six of the previous eight world titles

Britain’s women’s pursuit team keep a perfect line in the first round (AFP)

Laura Trott led Great Britain’s women’s team pursuit squad into the ride-off for bronze against New Zealand on day three of the Track Cycling World Championships in London on Friday night.

A ragged qualifying performance on Thursday meant Britain could finish third at best, but only with a strong first-round display. Trott recovered from the disappointment to win the non-Olympic scratch race on Thursday night and took her place yesterday in an unchanged line-up for the four-rider 4km event.

Joanna Rowsell Shand, Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne and Trott clocked four minutes 16.350 seconds after catching and overhauling heat rivals China. It was a new British record and almost five seconds quicker than their time a day earlier.

Britain had won six of the previous eight world titles, also taking silver twice, and won Olympic gold in 2012, when the event took place over 3km with three riders.

The duel for gold was set to be contested by Canada (4:18.261) and the United States, whose 4:14.806 was the second fastest time ever. New Zealand clocked 4:18.264.

Olympic champion Jason Kenny earlier made a strong start to the individual sprint competition. The 27-year-old from Bolton has endured a lean few years since winning two gold medals at the London 2012 Games to take his overall tally to three. But he is renowned for peaking for the Games and showed promising signs ahead of Rio by qualifying in second place in 9.767sec before advancing serenely to the quarter-finals, where fellow Briton Callum Skinner joined him by beating defending champion Grégory Baugé of France.

Kenny was just 0.001sec behind fastest qualifier Matthew Glaetzer of Australia as 18 riders dipped under the 10-second barrier for the flying 200m, which ranks the riders for the head-to-head sprints. Skinner was fifth fastest in 9.824.

Jair Tjon En Fa of Suriname and Eddie Dawkins of New Zealand were beaten by Kenny, while Skinner defeated Japan’s Seiichiro Nakagawa and London 2012 silver medallist Baugé to reach the last eight. New Zealand’s Sam Webster is set to be Kenny’s opponent in the best-of-three quarter-finals today, with Skinner drawn against Russia’s Denis Dmitriev.

Mark Cavendish began his omnium campaign with a sixth-placed finish in the first of six disciplines, the 15km (60-lap) scratch race.

Cavendish, a 26-time Tour de France stage winner and 2011 world champion on the road, is aiming to add one of the few honours which has eluded him in his illustrious career – Olympic gold.

Owain Doull met British team-mate Andy Tennant last night in a ride-off for bronze in the separate individual pursuit event. Both were part of the British squad which finished second in the team pursuit on Thursday.

Katy Marchant was fifth in the non-Olympic women’s 500m time-trial. Anastasiia Voinov of Russia won in 32.959; Marchant clocked 34.032.