Britain has won the first gold medal of the track cycling programme in the men's team sprint at the Beijing Olympics.

The trio of Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy clocked times of 43.128 and 43.651 to see off France.

It was sweet revenge for Staff and Hoy who had lost to France in the final at the World Championships in March.

The trio has been in fine form all day. In the qualifying rounds, they opened with a time of 42.950 and followed that with 43.034 seconds.

Meanwhile, in the men's individual pursuit, Bradley Wiggins and Steven Burke both qualified for the last eight.

Wiggins was the fastest in qualifying, with an Olympic record and personal best time of four minutes 15.031 seconds.

Burke, who will be a member of GB's team pursuit outfit, clocked a time of 4 minutes 22.2 seconds.

With Wiggins the reigning champion, the GB team have two berths in the individual pursuit.

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