World-beating Germany Retain Team Sprint Title

Germany retained their women's team sprint title and shattered their own world record at the cycling world championships on Thursday.

It is a fourth successive title in the discipline for the German team who are also the reigning Olympic champions.

Lea Sophie Friedrich, Pauline Grabosch and Emma Hinze beat the British team in the final by setting a new world record to 45:848sec, just one year before the Paris Olympics. China took third place.

America's Chloe Dygert won her fourth world title in the individual pursuit by beating defending champion Franziska Brause of Germany in the final.

Dygert, the world record holder, also won the world title in 2017, 2018 and 2020.

Britain's William Tidball took gold in the men's scratch race.

The 23-year-old defeated Japan's Kazushige Kuboki with Tuur Dens of the Netherlands taking bronze.

"I don't think it has sunk in yet. Not long ago I was watching Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins and all those do this. To come here and become world champion at first time of asking is what dreams are made of," Tidball told the BBC.

"I thought I had left it a bit late. The plan was to stay out of harms way and every day in training I was thinking about getting on a good wheel with two and a half kilometres to go.

"To say you are the best in the world of something is something I have dreamt of since I started cycling."

Great Britain's defence of their men's team pursuit world title ended in a crash in qualifying.

Charlie Tanfield slipped coming out of the final corner at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, and with the home nation already down to three riders at that point they did not set an official time and went out of the competition.

Tanfield had come into the line-up as a replacement for Ethan Hayter, who is out of the championships having been unable to recover from a broken collarbone in time.

Tanfield had been struggling to hold the wheel of Dan Bigham and Ethan Vernon as they upped the pace in the finale.

As he fought to catch back up, Tanfield, part of the GB squad that won the team pursuit world title in 2018, dropped his front wheel onto the blue band at the bottom of the track and lost control.

The 26-year-old received medical treatment on the track for several minutes before being able to walk off unassisted.

An update from British Cycling said: "Following his crash in this morning's men's team pursuit qualification, Charlie Tanfield was assessed immediately by the on-site medical team before being taken to hospital for further treatment.

"We wish Charlie a very speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him back on his bike soon. Unfortunately, the men's team pursuit riders will not progress in the competition."