Australia smashed the men’s team pursuit world record at the Paris velodrome on Tuesday to set up an Olympic gold medal clash with track giants Britain.
Their team of Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O’Brien clocked a blistering 3mins 40.730secs to dismantle the previous mark of 3:42.032.
That was set by Italy on their way to gold at the Tokyo Olympics in the most prestigious event of the track cycling programme.
The Italians will meet Denmark in the bronze medal race on Wednesday.
Britain own the most Olympic medals in men’s team pursuit with 15, winning at Beijing, London and Rio before slumping to seventh in Tokyo.