Canada romp to men's team pursuit gold

From Sportsbeat staff, in Vancouver

 CANADA'S Denny Morrison, Mathieu Giroux and Lucas Makowsky stormed to speed skating team pursuit gold, edging out the USA trio in the process.

GOLDEN DAY: Canada's Denny Morrison, Mathieu Giroux and Lucas Makowsky seal team pursuit speed skating gold at the Richmond Olympic Oval (Getty Images)

The Canadian trio were pushed all the way by their American counterparts but clinched a slender advantage early on and refused to let it slip.

Morrison, Giroux and Makowsky ended up just 0.21 seconds ahead of Brian Hansen, Chad Hedrick and Jonathan Kuck of the USA, but it might have been another story had 1000m champion Shani Davis not opted out of taking part for the second Olympics in a row.

Canada meanwhile, finally top the podium after they had to settle for silver behind Italy, while they were also second best at the World Championships - held in the Richmond Olympic Park in Vancouver.

But they were in fine form on the Olympic stage, and having seen off Norway in the semis, they roared to Canada's 11th gold medal of Vancouver 2010.

They did not set the fastest time of the day however, as the hotly-tipped Dutch quartet, who took their eye off the ball in the semis and were beaten by the USA, were out to prove a point and romped to gold in a new Olympic record time of 3:39.95 - a full 1.42 ahead of Canada.

Team pursuit bronze however, will come as scant consolation for the Netherlands' Sven Kramer, who was disqualified from the 10,000m despite setting the fastest time by a distance, after his coach had directed him into the wrong lane.

Meanwhile, Germany succesfully defended their women's team pursuit title in Vancouver.

The trio of Daniela Anschutz Thoms, Stephanie Beckert and Katrin Mattscherodt edged out Japan by 0.02 in a close-fought gold medal race while Poland beat USA by 1.57 to collect bronze.

 AS IT HAPPENS: Day 16 of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver