Laura Trott, Dani King and Elinor Barker combined to win Great Britain’s first gold medal of the 2013 UCI World Track Championship in Minsk, Belarus, with victory in the women’s team pursuit.

The trio clocked three minutes and 18.140 seconds to beat Australia’s Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Melissa Hoskins by 1.773 seconds and secure Great Britain’s fifth world title in six years in the discipline.

With Olympic gold medallist Jo Rowsell absent in order to concentrate on her road career, A-Level student Barker, 18, slotted seamlessly in the line-up to stake her claim for the fourth spot in the squad when the women’s team pursuit increases to four riders and 4,000m next year.

“It was scary [being the youngest member of the team] to be honest but I couldn’t ask for better team-mates,” said Barker. “They are the best in the world, who better to learn from?”

Trott added: “We didn’t know what sort of time we were going to do, we put a 3:20 on the board in training, the track seems to be running fast. We were so happy to qualify in 3:18 and it’s just a race from then on.

“No way [is there an Olympic hangover]. Who wouldn’t want to win another stripey jumper?”

Becky James won bronze in the women’s 500m time trial, the Welsh rider’s second medal of that colour of the week after finishing third in the team sprint with Vicky Williamson. Lee Wai Sze (Hong Kong, China) took the gold, ahead of Miriam Welte (Germany).

“I’m pretty shocked,” said the 21-year-old James. “I’ve come in with good form, but the 500′s always been a hard event and I didn’t expect to come away with a medal. It was a bit of an agonising wait towards the end, when everyone was going a bit slower.

“To come away with a medal, I’m so happy.”

Williamson finished 11th in the event.

Here are some great images of the British team’s build-up, race and celebration, courtesy of British Cycling.