Australia has broken the men’s team pursuit world record on day two of the Olympic track cycling program.

The combination of Olympic medallists Sam Welsford, Kelland O’Brien, plus Games debutants Conor Leahy and Oliver Bleddyn, clocked an incredible time of 3 minutes and 40.730 seconds to easily beat reigning Games champions Italy in their round-one heat.

That sets up a gold-medal ride on Wednesday against Great Britain, Australia’s long-time fierce rivals in the event.

The previous world record was 3:42.032, set by Italy at the Tokyo Olympics.

The world record came as Australia won bronze in the men’s team sprint, beating France in their ride-off.

The combination of Leigh Hoffman, Matthew Richardson and Matthew Glaetzer rode 41.597 seconds to beat France’s 41.993 in front of the raucous and parochial home crowd at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome outside Paris.

Had they posted that time earlier on Tuesday in the first round, Australia would have ridden off against the Netherlands for the gold medal.

But Australia only managed 42.336, while the Dutch broke their own record.

The Dutch reduced the world mark again as they beat Great Britain in the final, clocking 40.979 to 41.814. They are the first team to go sub-41.

While it is Australia’s first Olympic medal in the event since bronze at the Sydney Games, they made no secret of their gold medal aspirations.

Australia had upset the powerful Dutch to win the 2022 world title and were narrowly runners-up to them at last year’s worlds.

Despite missing out on the gold medal, Glaetzer said it was “a lot of relief” after claiming the drought-breaking medal in the team sprint for Australia.