Cycling - Australia break world record to win men's team pursuit gold

Cycling - 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Pruszkow, Poland - February 28, 2019 Australia celebrate winning the men's team pursuit final with their gold medals on the podium REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

PRUSZKOW, Poland (Reuters) - Australia smashed their own world record to win the men's team pursuit gold at the track cycling world championships ahead of Olympic champions and title holders Britain on Thursday.

The Australians led from the start and the quartet of Leigh Howard, Samuel Welsford, Kelland O'Brien and Alex Porter set a time of 3:48.012 to eclipse the previous world mark of 3:49.804 achieved at their home 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Denmark took the bronze after beating Canada.

Cycling - 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Pruszkow, Poland - February 28, 2019 Australia's Samuel Welsford celebrates winning the men's scratch race final with second placed Netherlands' Roy EEFTING REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Britain's three-time Olympic gold medallist Ed Clancy and team mates Charlie Tanfield, Ethan Hayter and Kian Emadi were blown away by the speed of the Australians, with the two countries likely to vie for gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

"I'm speechless at the moment to be honest," Australia's Porter, 22, said on the organisers' official twitter https://twitter.com/UCI_Track feed. "It's a pretty surreal feeling. We were going fast in training but we didn't imagine we'd be able to do something like that."

Porter was competing only 10 weeks after damaging his left shoulder and breaking a collarbone in a crash at the national madison championships at Melbourne Arena.

Cycling - 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Pruszkow, Poland - February 28, 2019 Australia pose as they celebrate winning the women's team pursuit final REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Australia's Welsford won his second gold when he claimed the men's scratch title with Roy Eefting of the Netherlands taking silver and New Zealand's Tom Sexton the bronze.

Dutchman Matthijs Buchli secured his second gold of the championships by beating Japan's Yudai Nitta and Germany's Stefan Boetticher in the men's keirin final. On Wednesday Buechli helped his country retain the team sprint title.

Australia beat Britain by 0.204 seconds in the women's team pursuit final with Annette Edmondson, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Georgia Baker and Amy Cure hanging on after building an early lead.

Cycling - 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Pruszkow, Poland - February 28, 2019 Australia during the men's team pursuit final REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

New Zealand took the bronze by beating Canada.

Australia lead the medals table after the second day of the championships having won four out of seven finals.

Friday's action includes the men's points race, time trial and individual pursuit plus the women's sprint.

Cycling - 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Pruszkow, Poland - February 28, 2019 General view as Australia celebrate winning the men's team pursuit final with second placed Great Britain and third placed Denmark on the podium REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

(Reporting by Anna Koper; Editing by Ken Ferris and Toby Davis)

Cycling - 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Pruszkow, Poland - February 28, 2019 Australia's Samuel Welsford celebrates winning the men's scratch race final with second placed Netherland's Roy Eefting and New Zealand's Thomas Sexton REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Cycling - 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Pruszkow, Poland - February 28, 2019 Australia celebrate winning the women's team pursuit final on the podium with second placed Great Britain and third placed New Zealand REUTERS/Kacper Pempel