(REUTERS) – Australia set the first world record on the London Olympic cycling track, when they bettered their own mark in the women’s team sprint qualifying session in the World Cup series. World champions Anna Meares and Kaarle McCulloch clocked 32.828 to beat their previous mark set in March 2010 by 0.095 over two 250-metre laps to reach the final, where they faced Britain later yesterday.
Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish took second place with China and France, who will battle it out for bronze, in third and fourth respectively.
The finals line-up will be the same as at last year’s world championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.
“We’re going to go faster tonight, I’m confident of that. I was a little bit nervous for the first one,” McCulloch said.
The London track, which will be used at this year’s Olympic Games, is said to be very fast and riders and pundits alike had predicted that records would be broken.