The Danish men's pursuit team avenged its loss to Italy at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, giving them momentum before next year's Summer Games.
The team of Niklas Larsen, Carl-Frederik Bevort, Lasse Leth and Rasmus Pedersen trailed the Italians after the first 1,000 meters of the 4,000-meter race at the world championships in Glasgow, Scotland. But a more balanced Danish lineup pulled even by the halfway point, quickly went ahead and eventually stretched its advantage to two seconds by the finish.
Denmark clocked 3 minutes, 45.161 seconds to take the gold medal, which has eluded the proud track cycling nation for years. The Danes finished second to Italy in Tokyo and were third behind Britain and Italy at last year's world championships, but now they set their sights on next summer's Olympics in Paris as the favorites.
"I'm really exhausted but also, just all the adrenaline kicks in," Bevort said. "It's really unbelievable that we're world champions."
The Italian team of Filippo Ganna, Francesco Lamon, Jonathan Milan and Manilo Moro finished in 3:47.396 for silver, while New Zealand took advantage of a mechanical problem on the Australian team to cruise to the bronze medal in their showdown.
In the women's team pursuit, the favored British team inserted powerful Katie Archibald into its lineup in place of Megan Barker, and she helped the Olympic silver medalists claim gold on Saturday.
New Zealand led the British squad of Archibald, Elinor Barker, Josie Knight and Anna Morris early before falling behind at the halfway point. Britain pulled away over the final 2,000 meters to win by nearly five seconds in a time of 4:08.771.
France won its second consecutive bronze medal when it rallied to beat Italy, the defending world champions.
The world titles also were decided Saturday in downhill mountain biking, which is not a part of the Olympic program.
In the men's race, Britain's Charlie Hatton pulled off the upset by navigating the wet and deteriorating course in 4:26.747, finishing 2 seconds ahead of Austria's Andreas Kolb. Laurie Greenland of Scotland won bronze.
In the women's race, Valentina Holl of Austria defended her title with a time of 4:58.242. Camille Balanche of Switzerland won the silver, and Marine Cabirou of France earned bronze.