SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES: Australia's women's team pursuit squad smashed the world record in upsetting Britain at the World Track Cycling Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines on Thursday.
In a disappointing day for the Britons, who were Olympic champions and world record holders in both the men's and women's disciplines, they were also beaten by New Zealand for the men's team pursuit gold medal.
The British women's team had only ever failed to win the team pursuit once before in the seven previous times the event figured at the world championships.
But Australian quartet Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Amy Cure and Melissa Hoskins put in an astonishing ride to finish in 4min 13.683sec and better Britain's previous mark by 2.869sec.
Australia's coach Gary Sutton said he wasn't surprised his team won but admitted the time they produced had been unexpected.
"I believe they did know (they were capable of that), I definitely knew. We've developed a good network of people around them and they know that," he said.
"They were quietly confident coming in here. I didn't expect that time tonight to be honest with you. I thought it would be about a 15 (4min 15sec), but it was what they were capable of doing and they certainly delivered that."
Britain's Katie Archibald, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Joanna Roswell did not disgrace themselves, finishing just 0.15sec outside the old world record, but they simply could not match the Aussies' scorching pace.
Canada beat New Zealand to the bronze medal.
New Zealand had been disappointed to be stripped of the men's team sprint title on Wednesday for an early changeover.
They then came up short in the men's keirin on Thursday as Frenchman Francois Pervis retained his title ahead of Edward Dawkins, with Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia taking bronze.
- No mistake -
But the New Zealanders made no mistake this time, putting in a storming last kilometre to overhaul the Brits, who led after 3km.
New Zealand coach Tim Carswell admitted he hadn't expected to take the gold.
"It's well above their expectations. It's an extremely young team, I think the average age's only 20 years old. One lad in there who came in for the final is only 18 years old, so it's an incredible ride by those guys," he said.
It was only the second time since 2001 that neither Australia nor Britain had won this event.
The New Zealand quartet of Pieter Bulling, Dylan Kennett, Alex Frame and Marc Ryan finished in 3min 54.088sec, more than half a second ahead of Britain's foursome of Olympic champions Edward Clancy and Steve Burke, alongside Owain Doull and Andrew Tennant.
Britain's head coach Iain Dyer said he was not too disappointed to have missed out on a title.
"A little mixed, it's always nice when you're stepping up to the final to hope you're going to win gold," he said.
"On both levels, men and women, it leaves us in a good place with a year and a half to go to Rio."
The 2014 champions, and four-time winners in the last five years, Australia, caught Germany to take the bronze medal.
It was a mixed bag for the Aussies as Anna Meares missed the chance to make history by winning a record 11th world championship gold medal.
The 31-year-old world record holder was beaten by Russia's Anastasia Voynova to gold in the women's 500m timetrial.
Had Meares won she would have equalled the record of five timetrial titles held by Frenchwoman Felicia Ballanger and Natalya Tsylinskaya of Belarus, while also eclipsing the mark of 10 world titles overall she shares with Ballanger.
Germany's 2014 champion Miriam Welte finished third.
Although Welte missed out on gold, countryman Lucas Liss won the men's Scratch Race.
Albert Torres Barcelo of Spain took silver with American Bobby Lea taking the bronze at the end of the 15km, 60-lap race.
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