Cycling: Australians smash pursuit world record

8.30am

MANCHESTER - Australia broke the world record in the 4000m cycling team pursuit when they clocked three minutes 59.583 seconds in the final at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.

The previous best of 3min 59.710sec was set by Germany at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

The Australian team of Graeme Brown, Peter Dawson, Mark Renshaw and Luke Roberts were willed on by a capacity crowd at the National Cycling centre velodrome as they consistently lapped under the world record time.

The England team of Steve Cummings, Paul Manning, Chris Newton and Bryan Steel stopped the clock at 4min 02.665sec.

New Zealand won the bronze medal yesterday.

"To go under four minutes is a pretty respectable thing in cycling and there are only two or three countries who have ever done it," Mark Renshaw said.

The Australians only spent three weeks training together before the Games began.

"For Australia to pitch four guys together, get them to train for three weeks over in Switzerland, then to come here after three weeks preparation and ride under four minutes is just unbelievable," Renshaw added.

Luke Roberts said the team had been confident about breaking the world record prior to the Games.

"We were joking with the idea of going four seconds faster and taking the world record," Roberts said.

"We had ridden a 4:03 earlier this year in the World Cup with minimum preparation so (after) we put in two to three weeks solid track time it was always on the cards."

Roberts said he had been conscious of the record because of the announcements from the track commentator and the reaction from the crowd.

"Coming into the last kilometre I could hear the commentator talking about a record and the crowd was pretty excited," Roberts said.

"I could see England up ahead of us and I thought we were on a pretty quick time.

"I could hear 'record' but I did not know if he was talking about a Commonwealth Games record or a world record. It was incredible to do it."

Track Men's 4000m Team Pursuit Gold Medal:

Graeme Brown, Peter Dawson, Mark Renshaw, Luke Roberts (Aus) 3 minutes 59.583 seconds bt Paul Manning, Chris Newton, Bradley Wiggins, Bryan Steel (Eng) 4min 02.665sec.

Track Men's 20km Scratch Race Final:

1 Graeme Brown (Aus) 24:14.660
2 Huw Pritchard (Wal)
3 Tony Gibb (Eng)
4 LEE VERTONGEN (NZL)
5 Jean-Pierre Van Zyl (Rsa)
6 GREG HENDERSON (NZL)
7 Ashley Hutchinson (Aus)
8 Mark Renshaw (Aus)
9 HAYDEN GODFREY (NZL)
10 Alwyn Mcmath (Nir)
11 Mark Kelly (Iom)
12 Ross Muir (Sco)
13 Carlitos Jones (Bar)
14 Richard Chapman (Sco)
15 Emile Abraham (Tri)
16 James Mccallum (Sco)
17 Will Wright (Wal)
18 Paul Sheppard (Wal)
19 Tim Buckle (Eng)
20 Steve Cummings (Eng)
21 Dean Edwards (Rsa) Did Not Finish
22 Horace Mcfarlane (Jam) Did Not Finish
23 Christian Tavares-Finson (Jam) Did Not Finish
24 Ako Kellar (Tri) Did Not Finish
25 Elisah Greene (Tri) Did Not Finish

Track Women's Sprint Gold Medal:

Kerrie Meares (Aus) bt Lori-Ann Muenzer (Can)

Track Women's Sprint Semi-Final:

Lori-Ann Muenzer (Can) 11.963sec/11.914sec bt Anna Meares (Aus)
Kerrie Meares (Aus) 12.665sec/12.617sec bt Victoria Pendleton (Eng)

Track Women's Sprint Minor Final 5-8th: Denise Hampson (Wal) 12.375sec bt Melanie Szubrycht (Eng)

- REUTERS

Full coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/manchester2002

Medal table

Commonwealth Games info and related links