Great Britain’s women were beaten as Australia broke the world record by nearly three seconds in the Track World Championships team pursuit final yesterday. The defeat is the first in four years for the quartet made up of Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell.

Credit however must be given to the Australian victors who won in an astounding time of four minutes 13.683 seconds.

Speaking to the BBC after the race Laura Trott displayed disappointment over the defeat. “I’m a bit gutted, I guess,” said Trott, who had previously won gold in the event in every year since her Track World Championships debut in 2011.

“It’s the first one we’ve lost so a bit of a shock but they rode a 4:13 which is unbelievable. We’ve never gone anywhere near doing that so hats off to them,” she added.

“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.”