Britain won the Olympic men's team pursuit gold medal yesterday, knocking nearly two seconds off the world record it set a day earlier.

The team of Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and individual pursuit gold-medalist Bradley Wiggins finished the 4,000 meters in 3 minutes, 53.314 seconds at the Laoshan velodrome.

The four were dominant in the final against Denmark, almost catching the Danish by the end of the 4,000 meters to the cheers of the crowd.

The British team has knocked more than three seconds off the team pursuit world record in the past six months. The medal gave Britain 12 golds for the Olympics so far, already its best showing since 1920.

New Zealand beat archrival Australia to take the bronze medal.

Earlier, world champion Marianne Vos of the Netherlands won the women's points race gold medal at the on the fourth day of Olympic track cycling.

Vos dominated the race and was the only rider to successfully lap the field. She finished with 30 points, ahead of Yoanka Gonzalez of Cuba, who won the final sprint to take silver with 18 points. Leire Olaberria of Spain took the bronze with 13 points.

The low-scoring race was marred by a crash that took out Sarah Hammer of the United States, Satomi Wadami of Japan and Verena Jooss of Germany.

Vos, 21, failed to take a medal in the road race and the road time-trial. It was also the first medal for the Dutch, who have suffered a string of problems and accidents.

"I hope it is the beginning of good races, said Vos, speaking as her compatriots Theo Bos and Teun Mulder competed in the quarterfinals of the men's sprints. Minutes later, both were out.

In the points race, racers ride 100 laps of the track, taking part in sprints every 10th lap for points. There is a bonus of 20 points for lapping the field.

"It was very hard," Vos said. "I was in front in the beginning of the race and after 20 laps, I felt I had to do some laps easy, and then halfway I felt everybody got tired and I knew it was the moment to try to attack and get a lap."

Gonzalez said she had to keep something in reserve because there were three women on the same points total in the late stages of the race.

"At three laps to go I decided to really go for it. I was afraid someone might catch me, but I just went for it knowing that this would be my last Olympics," she said.

In the quarter-finals of the women's sprint competition, world champion Victoria Pendleton of Britain advanced to Tuesday's final stages, along with Guo Shuang of China, Anna Meares of Australia and Willy Kanis of the Netherlands.

Two Britons with gold medals to their names already made it through to the final four in the men's event - Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny - along with Mickael Bourgain of France and Maximilian Levy of Germany.