Olympics: Edinburgh's Callum Skinner wins cycling team gold

Edinburgh cyclist Callum Skinner teamed up with Jason Kenny and Phil Hindes as Great Britain's won a third-successive Olympic gold in the men's team sprint in Rio.

Capital cyclist Callum Skinner celebrates crossing the line to clinch gold for Great Britain in Rio

Britain’s three-man, three-lap team sprint squad have a habit of peaking every four years and did so again as Kenny claimed his fourth Olympic gold.

Great Britain have not won a world title in the discipline since 2005, but have now won gold at the 2008, 2012 and now 2016 Olympics.

The British trio clocked 42.440 seconds, an Olympic record, to claim gold, just five months after finishing sixth in the world at the Track World Championships in London.

New Zealand’s Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Ed Dawkins, the world champions, had to settle for silver in 42.542secs, just 0.102 behind. Bronze went to France in 43.143.

The performance of the team sprint squad was something of a surprise. They came from nowhere to triumph four years ago in London, as Sir Chris Hoy claimed the fifth of his six Olympic golds, and repeated the trick in Rio after finishing a lowly sixth at March’s Track World Championships in the English capital.

Hindes, Kenny – champions with Hoy four years ago – and Skinner set an Olympic record in qualifying, but the standard was overtaken by New Zealand, who finished their first round in 42.535. However, the British trio won the duel for gold.