Britain took a step towards defending their men's Olympic team pursuit title after dominating qualifying in a new world record time at the London velodrome on Thursday, August 2, AFP said.

Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas combined to clock 3min 52.499sec for the 16-lap, 4km event, beating their own record of 3:53.295 set in Melbourne in April.

The top eight teams qualify for the first round of the competition, which will be held on Friday. The top two teams in the first round qualify for the gold medal match while the next two fastest will battle for bronze.

Australia, regarded as Britain's closest rivals in the 16-lap 4 km event, finished second fastest in 3:55.694 -- well behind the 3:51 that many team coaches have said will be required to win Olympic gold.

New Zealand were third in 3:57.607, Denmark fourth in 3:58.298 and Russia fifth in 3:59.265. Completing the top eight were Spain, Colombia and the Netherlands.