TEAM GB’s long-awaited return to the women’s team sprint battle at an Olympic Games ended with gold as Emma Finucane, Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell broke the world record three times on a perfect night.

After failing to even qualify in this event since London 2012, Team GB set a new benchmark in every round, the last of them a time of 45.186 seconds which saw them beat New Zealand by five tenths of a second to claim Britain’s first ever Olympic women’s team sprint medal.

“It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Marchant, the 31-year-old who flew the women’s sprint flag alone for Britain in Rio and Tokyo.