Eighteen-year-old Laura Trott and 20-year-old Dani King, both making their Championship debuts, combined with 36-year-old Olympic silver medallist Wendy Houvenaghel to take gold in the team pursuit, beating the United States by almost two seconds.

Shortly afterwards another Championship first-timer, 20-year-old Jess Varnish, produced an outstanding ride as she teamed up with Olympic champion Victoria Pendleton to take silver in the team sprint.

Britain surged clear in the team pursuit to finish in 3min 23.419sec with the Americans trailing in 3:25.308.

In the team sprint final, Britain clocked 33.525 but the dominant Australian pairing of Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch won their third successive title in a time of 33.237.

The newly assembled team pursuit trio had set the fastest qualifying time with 3:23.642 and veteran Houvenaghel was delighted with the way her team gelled.

"It's such a relief in some respects but it was a great ride and we worked so well together as a team," she said.

"I'm so glad we've come away with the gold medal this time.

"Everyone brings different attributes to this event, it's a team event, and a mixture of endurance and sprint really works.

"I'm so pleased and it's a real privilege to have ridden with these two girls and get that rainbow jersey again."

King added: "I didn't imagine this would happen, it's been a whirlwind for me.

"I couldn't have done it without the other two, it's fantastic.

"We've been working so hard over the last four or five months, we put everything into it, did our best ride and the result came.

"It's another step forward to London and 2012."


The British pair were in optimistic mood, however, and Pendleton (pictured right) said: "We've got the right ingredients right here, with a bit more work and focus we'll be smiling I hope.

"I was pleased to see we really pushed the Australians, Anna Meares has a consistent 18.8-second lap and it's going to take time to get there, but if anyone can do it I'm sure Jess can do it.

"For such a young athlete - making myself sound all old - I'm really pleased with her progress and dedication.

"In the last four weeks since the World Cup in Manchester I feel I've made some big improvements.

"I feel a lot more confident and this has shown I'm going in the right direction."

Varnish, 20, added: "It's great to be in the team with Vicky.

"I don't really worry about having the Olympic champion in my team, it'd be a lot of pressure if I started to worry about that.

"It's really important to go under 19 seconds on this track, you never know what you're going to do when you haven't ridden it before.

"I've got to keep building on that now."

Meanwhile, endurance rider Ed Clancy will not defend his ominium world title after withdrawing from the Championships because of illness.

The 26-year-old had already pulled out of Great Britain's bronze medal-winning ride in the men's team pursuit after struggling in qualifying.

Sam Harrison, who replaced him in the pursuit, will now represent GB in the men's omnium on Friday and Saturday.

Harrison, 18, won the event at the Beijing World Cup in January.

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