Great Britain's gold medal-winning team pursuit squad of Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott(Image credit: AFP)
Great Britain's Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King compete during the London 2012 Olympic Games women's team pursuit(Image credit: AFP)
Great Britain was stunning in its performance throughout the women's team pursuit, capped off with a gold medal and another world record.(Image credit: AFP)
Great Britain continued their Olympic Games dominance on the track with another gold medal in the women's team pursuit. Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King coasted through qualifying on Friday evening, setting a new world record, but the trio went on to set two further records on their way to gold on Saturday. They saved their best for last with a time of 3.14.051 in the final. The United States secured a silver medal as Canada rounded out the podium with bronze.
"Words can't describe how I'm feeling. It's just an incredible feeling. I don't think this smile is going to come off my face for a long time," King said in her post race press conference.
Rowsell, the oldest member of the team at 23, echoed her words: "It's not really sunk in for me yet. I've got this gold medal and I'm keeping hold of it. It's just been such an incredible week for the team starting with Lizzie [Armitstead] winning a medal and it's just got better and better for the team."
The USA, who had improved from fifth in the Worlds, secured a final spot after beating Australia in their final heat. But in the final they were simply outclassed, and despite the best efforts of Sarah Hammer – clearly their strongest rider – they were unable to challenge the home team's efforts, finishing in a time of 3:19.727.
"I don't think we were ever complacent," Rowsell said. "We were always confident in our ability and we knew we could back it up. We've trained really hard for it but we never thought we had it in the bag. America had gone faster in their first ride today than they did yesterday so we didn't know how much more they had to give."
The British team has now set five world records in their last five races and along with two world titles look set to dominate the discipline for the coming years.
"The fact that we are capable of doing it again just drives us," said King "We've been working so hard and making gains in training all the time."
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Rowsell, who set the team on their way with the opening lap and quarter, added that the team's relative youth could mean that Rio in four years is their next major objective.
"Laura is 20, Dani is 21, I'm the oldest on the team at 23, so I' sure there's definitely more to come as we get stronger with age. Rio is four years away and we've not really thought about that but definitely we can keep going faster."
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
