SOUTHAMPTON'S Dani King was part of the Great Britain trio that set a world record in the team pursuit to advance as fastest qualifiers at the Track Cycling World Championships in Melbourne.

Britain watched on as Australia, the tenth of 14 teams to ride, lowered the world record to three minutes 17.053 seconds - more than a second quicker than the time Britain set in February.

But King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott went faster still to finish in 3mins 16.850secs and set up another duel between the World Championship hosts and the London Olympics hosts.

British Cycling head coach Shane Sutton was impressed by the British trio's performance after seeing their previous best time beaten minutes earlier.

Sutton has predicted another world record in this evening's final, with two teams on the track, circulating air and the race for gold speeding up the riders.

Sutton said: "I think tonight will be a world record ride to win it. Tonight it's going to be a (three minutes) 15 (seconds) ride to win. We set an outcome goal of that quite a long time ago.

"If strategies are right, we should get down to the top end of (three minutes) 15 (seconds) tonight, might just creep inside (three minutes) 16 (seconds).

"(But) tonight's not records, it's about winning, it's about racing. We're going to go out there and race, put them under pressure, probably try to get onto them a little bit quicker and see whether we can expose them."

Britain are set to stick with Rowsell, King and Trott in the final, with Wendy Houvenaghel missing out. However, Houvenaghel remains firmly in the Olympic mix.

"I'm going to stick with that team," added Australian-born Sutton, whose brother Gary is coach of the hosts.

"That's a young group that's working well. I think we'll stick with that one for the time being.

"Wendy could've stepped up there in girl three and broken that world record. That's how well she's going."