The Netherlands men's team sprint trio set a new world record of 40.949 seconds to win Olympic gold as they beat Britain in the final at the Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Tuesday evening in front of a sea of orange shirts.

Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands celebrates after winning the cycling track men's team sprint finals for gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, Aug. 6, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

The Netherlands' team of Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland lived up to their billing as favorites and led the final from the start.

They went into the start with confidence of knowing they had won five of the last six world championships and also set a new world record of 41.191 against Canada to reach the final.

Britain never looked as if they were in with a chance, in a race in which one rider takes the lead and then drops out after a lap to leave the final pair to duel it out to the finish line.

"When I crossed the line after two laps, I was searching for the time and I saw the time of 28.8 [seconds]. That was a record for the two of us [Van den Berg and himself], and I knew Jeff was after me, so I knew it was going to be crazy," said Lavreysen.

"I was already smiling on my bike before he finished, and then I saw the under 41 seconds," he commented, while Hoogland said the electric atmosphere in the Velodrome helped.

"It was awesome, it was like a home race, so many Dutch people here, it's close to the Netherlands. The track is nice, warm and fast, we were ready, everything was perfect," explained the rider.

Despite losing the final, the British trio of Ed Lowe, Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin, who beat Germany in the previous round, said they were delighted with the result.

"I'm ecstatic, silver medal is something I didn't think was possible going into this, so second place, I'll definitely take that to the Dutch," said Lowe, while Turnbull said, "We weren't expecting to fight for gold, we were chasing the bronze really so to get into that gold final, all stress was off. We could really enjoy it, soak up the crowd and show everyone what we could do without any pressure on our backs."

Australia beat China in a time of 42.336 seconds in the first round, and their team of Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer then took bronze against France in 41.597 seconds, which previously would have been a new record.

Britain are assured at least another silver medal in Wednesday's men's team pursuit, but their quartet of Ethan Hayter, Oliver Wood, Daniel Bigham and Ethan Vernon have a difficult task to take gold against Australia's Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O'Brien, who set a new world record of 3:40.730 in their heat against Italy.

New Zealand produced a surprise when they qualified with the fastest time in the women's team pursuit.

The four New Zealand riders set a new national record of 4:04.679 for the 16 laps of the 250-meter track, finishing ahead of a United States team containing Sunday's road-race gold winner, Kristen Faulkner and Chloe Dygert, and Britain, who qualified third with another new national record of 4:06.710.

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