Great Britain's team pursuit squads demonstrated their superiority in qualification on the final day of the Track World Cup at the Manchester Velodrome.

The men's quartet of Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Ben Swift posted an astonishing time of three minutes 57.709 seconds in qualifying fastest for this afternoon's final - 11 seconds quicker than nearest rivals Spain.

World champions Lizzie Armitstead, Joanna Rowsell and Wendy Houvenaghel were also in stunning form, qualifying a second outside the world record as Britain looked well placed to add to their seven gold medals from the opening two days of competition.

With the women's event set to be incorporated in a revised Olympic programme, the British trio have been concentrating on team discipline ahead of the opening World Cup event of the season.

Resplendent in the rainbow world champion jerseys they won in Poland, the trio clocked 3mins 23.436secs to qualify fastest by four seconds.

It was less than a second down on their winning time in March and 1.021secs adrift of the world record set by Houvenaghel, Rowsell and Rebecca Romero in taking World Championship gold in Manchester in 2008.

Germany will provide the opposition in the final after posting a qualifying time of 3:27.482.

A new-look British men's team also put on a stunning display.

Britain won the event at last year's Beijing Olympics, with Bradley Wiggins, Paul Manning, Clancy and Thomas combining for a qualifying time of 3:57.101 and a world record in the gold medal-winning performance of 3:53.314.

The British four could come close to that mark this afternoon in the final with Spain.

Victoria Pendleton qualified for the second round of the women's keirin with victory in the final heat of the first round.

But her young team-mates were not quite so lucky, with double junior world champion Becky James exiting after the first-round repechage.

Jess Varnish, meanwhile, was disqualified from the second heat for creeping in front of the derny motorpacer on the opening lap.

Chris Newton reached the men's scratch final with victory in the second heat.

The 36-year-old, who won the points race on Friday, avoided trouble to secure a comfortable route to the final.