Yorkshire duo forced to settle for silver as Australians triumph in team pursuit final

Jason Queally watched on from the British team pit as Huddersfield's Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Andy Tennant and Rotherham's Ben Swift clocked 3mins 55.806secs in the four kilometres, four-man event in qualification at the Ballerup Super Arena.

Britain were trailing throughout but narrowed the gap in the final kilometre, only for Australia's quartet of Cameron Meyer, Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis and Michael Hepburn to win by 0.152secs.

Clancy was philosophical in defeat and paid tribute to the Australia team.

"As a team we're used to winning. We're GB and people expect us to win.

"Anything other than a win always seems a bit of a disappointment. We thought a three minutes 56/57 would win on this track and normally it would.

"We knew the Aussies are coming strong at the moment, they've got a good bunch of young lads and I guess they just did us on the day. We can't be disappointed with our ride."

It was Australia's fifth title of the championships, while Sir Chris Hoy's men's keirin win remains Britain's solitary gold.

Hoy won his 10th world title on Thursday night and will begin his bid for an 11th today, but his predecessor as Olympic one-kilometre time-trial champion was a spectator in the men's team pursuit last night.

Queally, who won his gold at Sydney 2000, is at his first World Championships since 2006 and was making his return to the global stage after reinventing himself from sprint cyclist to endurance racer.

Queally, who will be 42 come London 2012, was the reserve rider and Britain opted to stick with the quartet which set the fastest men's team sprint qualifying time in history earlier in the day.

Even in the absence of Beijing Olympic champions Bradley Wiggins and Geraint Thomas, who are concentrating on their road careers with Team Sky, and the retired Paul Manning, Britain were flying.

Clancy, Burke, Tennant and Swift clocked 3mins 56.869secs in the afternoon and went quicker in the final, only to be beaten into silver.

Meyer provided fresh legs for Australia as they finished in 3:55.654 as two teams in the same race rode beneath 3:56 for the first time.

In the afternoon, Britain were the first to ride under four minutes as they set a new track record to qualify quickest – Australia's quartet finished in 3:58.185.

New Zealand had matched Britain for speed in the opening 3km but blew up near the end, with the minimum three riders completing the distance and stopping the clock in 3:58.616.

Defending champions Denmark, spurred on by a partisan crowd, also began quickly, but dropped a rider with over a kilometre to go.

Victoria Pendleton's bid for a fourth successive women's sprint title at the championships stayed on course after the Olympic champion powered through to today's semi-finals with ease.

After qualifying seventh quickest in 11.135, Pendleton beat Great Britain team-mate Jessica Varnish in the first knockout round.

She defeated Clara Sanchez, of France – the conqueror of another Briton, Rebecca James – before winning her best-of-three quarter-final with Victoria Baranova, of Russia, 2-0 to go through to the last four.

The 29-year-old is also chasing a fifth world sprint title in six years – the only missing title was 2006 in Bordeaux, where she picked up silver.

Pendleton was satisfied with her day's work and is confident ahead of her medal bid. "I overcooked the qualification this morning – a bit of a gear change experiment. I won't be doing that again, but it's all good learning and it had to be tried."

Pendleton was also pleased because she is still to find top gear. "I feel quite confident and I'm looking forward to opening up a full 100 per cent tomorrow," she added. "I had a very lucky draw today, the gods were on my side and I haven't gone 100 per cent yet. It's good for tomorrow because I'm going to need a bit more. I honestly believe that none of these girls are going better than I am in the final. We'll see how it goes."

David Daniell finished seventh in the men's 1km time-trial.

The event was won by Teun Mulder, of Holland, in a sea-level world best time of 1:00.341, bettering Stefan Nimke's mark from 2009 and Hoy's Olympic-winning time from Athens 2004.

The official world record was set at altitude in La Paz, Bolivia.

Daniell was competing in the non-Olympic event to build stamina in a bid to challenge for a place in the men's team sprint squad. The 20-year-old, from Middlesbrough, finished in 1:02.033.