Britain's Charlton breaks individual pursuit world record

(Changes day of Britain's silver medal to Thursday in paragraph five)

BALLERUP, Denmark :Britain's Josh Charlton set a world record for the men's individual pursuit during qualifying at the Track Cycling World Championships in Denmark on Friday.

Charlton finished in a time of three minutes 59.304 seconds, beating the previous mark of 3:59.636, set by Italian Filippo Ganna at the world championships in 2022 when winning his sixth gold medal in the 4km event.

The 21-year-old Charlton is only the third man to break the four minute mark, and will battle with Italy's Jonathan Milan for the gold medal later on Friday.

Milan rode a personal best of 4:00.296 to qualify for the gold-medal race, but now faces a tough task to finally take first prize having won two silvers and one bronze at the last three world championships.

Charlton already has a silver medal from the Men's Team Pursuit when Britain finished second to Denmark on Thursday, and one of his teammates, Charlie Tanfield, will take on fellow-Briton Daniel Bigham in the race for the bronze medal.