Elinor Barker claims Great Britain's first medal on opening day of Track World Championships 2017

Elinor Barker took Great Britain's first medal of the 2017 Track World Championships as she won silver in the women's scratch race behind Rachele Barbieri (Italy).

Barbieri and Barker, who is expected to also compete in the team pursuit, madison, and points race later in the week, were two of six riders who followed an attack by Sarah Hammer (USA) with 22 laps to go, working well together to gain a lap on the bunch with seven laps remaining.

Barker rode smartly to go straight towards the front of the bunch, coming around pre-race favourite Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) with a lap to go.

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The 22-year-old from Cardiff looked as if she had enough strength to hold off the more powerful sprinters behind, but was overhauled in the final metres by Barbieri with Jolien D'Hoore (Belgium) third.

The morning session of men's and women's team pursuit qualifying saw drama as Australia came within 0.3 seconds of breaking Great Britain's world record in the men's team pursuit.

The Australian quartet of Sam Welsford, Cameron Meyer, Kelland O’Brien and Alexander Porter clocked a blistering 3-50.577, narrowly missing out on the world record set by Great Britain in the Rio Olympics.

Unsurprisingly this was the quickest qualifying time, with Britain, who were caught by the Australian team, qualifying in fifth place with a time of 3-58.936.

>>> British team for 2017 Track World Championships: 10 riders make World debut

In the first round of the event in the evening session, the British quartet of Andy Tennant, Mark Stewart, Ollie Wood and Chris Latham set a faster time of 3-56.796 which was quick enough to see them into the bronze medal ride.

The women's team pursuit qualifying saw Great Britain qualify fifth fastest. Manon Lloyd, Emily Kay, Emily Nelson and Ellie Dickinson recorded a time of 4-21.548, putting them in with a chance of reaching the bronze medal final, with USA setting the fastest time with a 4-17.722.

In the men's team sprint France were third, while the final between New Zealand and the Netherlands had to be restarted after one of the Dutch riders had problems at the start, with New Zealand eventually taking victory. A youthful Great Britain team finished in fifth place.

In the women's team event Russia took gold by a tenth of a second ahead of Australia, with Germany in third.