COLNE cyclist Steven Burke helped Great Britain qualify fastest in the men’s team pursuit at the Rio Olympics.

East Lancashire’s Burke was joined by Sir Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy and Owain Doull for the ride with the quartet posting a time of 3 minutes 51.943 seconds.

That was fractionally short of their own world record, set by the London 2012 gold winning squad which included Burke.

It means Team GB will race New Zealand on Friday with Australia facing Denmark to determined who rides for gold.

Great Britain's Jason Kenny, Phil Hindes and Callum Skinner won the gold medal in the men's team sprint to claim track cycling's first gold.

Great Britain did clock a world record in qualifying fastest in the women's team pursuit.

Joanna Rowsell Shand, Laura Trott, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald set a world record in the four-rider, four-kilometres team pursuit.

The quartet finished in four minutes 13.260 seconds to qualify for Saturday's first round, which is effectively a semi-final.

Britain will meet Canada and must merely beat them to advance to the final. Canada qualified in 4mins 19.599secs, more than six seconds behind Britain.

The United States will meet Australia in the second semi-final after qualifying in 4:14.286.