Dani King wins Olympic gold (From Daily Echo)

Dani King wins Olympic gold

6:10pm Saturday 4th August 2012 in News

Hampshire track cyclist Dani King has been crowned an Olympic champion, after winning gold in the women’s team pursuit.

The 21-year-old was part of the British squad that beat USA in this evening’s final in yet another world record time.

Double world champions King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell stormed home in 3mins 14.051secs, leaving the Americans trailing in their wake.

Incredibly, they have now set world records in each of their last six rides, having also posted new best times in yesterday’s qualifying round and this afternoon’s semi-finals.

Paul McCartney was among the crowd cheering on the British trio at the Olympic velodrome.

An elated King lavished praise on her teammates after the race and admitted the extent of their achievement had not yet sunk in.

“We’re like sisters, and I couldn’t have done it without them,” she said. “They were absolutely incredible and I can’t believe we’ve done it, it’s absolutely amazing.”

An emotional Trott added: “It’s mad, I actually can’t believe it. It’s been my dream since I was eight and we’ve just gone and done it.

“I don’t think we expected to break the world record in every single ride that we did.”

Rowsell said the partisan home crowd had really spurred them on.

“I could tell we were winning by the noise of the crowd,” she said. “They were shouting so loud and that really spurred us on in that last kilometre.”

The British trio were so dominant that they finished nearly six seconds ahead of the American team.

They were by far and away the class of the competition throughout every round.

Earlier in the day, King, Trott and Rowsell had cruised past Canada in their semi-final to book a place in the gold medal ride.

They again broke the world record then, with a time of 3mins 14.682secs, nearly a full second quicker than the world record they posted in qualifying yesterday.

The United States had edged out Australia to reach the gold medal race, but their time was more than two seconds slower than the British girls’ semi-final effort, a gap that only increased in the gold medal showdown.