British women extend team pursuit reign in track cycling World Championships

Cali, Columbia: Great Britain retained their women`s team pursuit world crown Thursday, rallying to vanquish Canada to claim Britain`s first gold of the 2014 track cycling World Championships.

Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell -- members of the team that won Olympic gold before home fans in London in 2012 -- Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald triumphed with a time of 4min 23.407sec in the four-kilometer race. They had qualified fastest by two seconds in blustery conditions earlier in the day, but it was Canada who seized the initiative in the final, opening up a lead of 1.10sec at the halfway stage before Britain stormed back, gaining control over the final 750 meters to beat Canada`s Laura Brown, Jasmin Glaesser, Allison Beveridge and Stephanie Roorda by 1.29sec. Australia (Annette Edmondson, Amy Cure, Melissa Hoskins, Isabella King) took bronze, catching the Poland squad with around a kilometer to go in the race for third place. Germany`s Miriam Welte won the women`s 500m time trial gold with a time of 33.451sec, denying Australian Anna Meares a record 11th world title. Welte had already claimed gold in the women`s team sprint on Wednesday, teaming with Kristina Vogel for a victory over China. Meares settled for silver in 33.548 with Anastasia Voinova of Russia taking bronze. Although the 30-year-old from South Australia couldn`t add a fifth 500m time trial gold to her World Championship cache, she did claim her 21st World Championships medal. And she`ll have two more chances to add a record 11th world title to her resume in sprint and keirin events before competition concludes. Meares currently shares the record of 10 career world titles with France`s Felicia Ballanger. Defending 500m time trial world champion Sarah Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong finished sixth. Australia`s Alexander Edmonson, 20, won the men`s individual pursuit, beating Switzerland`s Stefan Kueng in the final. Edmondson clocked 4min 22.582sec over the four kilometer race, averaging 54.840 km/h to edge Kueng by 41 hundredths of a second. Edmondson claimed his second gold medal in as many days, after riding on the Australian squad that rallied to retain their men`s team pursuit title Wednesday. New Zealand`s Marc Ryan earned bronze, beating Ireland`s Ryan Mullen in the race for third place. Francois Pervis of France, 29, won the men`s keirin gold, finishing ahead of Colombian Fabian Puerta and Mattijs Buchli of the Netherlands in the final. The one-kilometer world record-holder notched his first world title in the event and will try to add two more individual titles before the week is out -- in Friday`s one-kilometer time trial and the weekend`s sprint. Germany`s Joachim Eilers finished fourth ahead of Britain`s defending champion Jason Kenny. Russia`s Ivan Kovalev won the men`s 15 km scratch race ahead of defending champion Martyn Irvine of Ireland and Hong Kong`s Cheung King-Lok. Cheung`s finish gave Hong Kong another world championships medal in the non-Olympic event, after Kwok Ho-Ting`s triumph in 2011.