Australia won a thrilling men's team pursuit final against Britain at the National Velodrome on Wednesday to claim their first Olympic gold medal in the track highlight since 2004.

The teams were neck-and-neck throughout the 16-lap duel with Australians Oliver Bleddyn, Sam Welsford, Conor Leahy and Kelland O'Brien always fractionally ahead.

It was still in the balance as the bell rang for the final lap but calamity struck as Britain's Ethan Hayter appeared to slip and lost momentum, sending them out of formation to allow Australia to gain sweet revenge for past defeats.

"I'm just so proud of the team I'm a part of," O'Brien told reporters. "It's an absolute honour to share the track with those guys, and even more so when you come away with gold."

Italy, the champions from Tokyo, easily beat Denmark to take the bronze medal.

The United States won the women's team pursuit gold for the first time when they beat New Zealand in the final with Britain taking the bronze medal by beating Italy.

World records continued to tumble earlier on day three of track action with Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen again showing why he is regarded as the best track sprinter of his generation with an incredible 200 metres flying lap to top the time sheets in qualification for the track cycling sprint.

Australian Matthew Richardson initially broke the world record set by Trinidad & Tobago's Paul Nicholas in 2019.

Richardson clocked 9.091 seconds to beat Nicholas's mark of 9.100 set at high altitude in Bolivia but he could not celebrate for long as the 27-year-old Lavreysen, fresh from his team sprint gold on Tuesday, clocked 9.088, averaging 79kph.

Lavreysen, nicknamed The Beast, is going for three golds at the Paris Games and is favourite for the sprint and keirin. (Reuters)