The Canadian women's pursuit team set a national record in the UCI Track Cycling World Cup qualifying heats Thursday at the new Olympic velodrome in London.

Tara Whitten of Edmonton, Jasmine Glaesser of Coquitlam, B.C. and Gillian Carleton of Victoria, B.C., combined for a time of three minutes, 20.785 seconds to set a Canadian record. The time, just off the world record, was also the best among the 15 countries entered in the race.

"You can never be disappointed when you set a new Canadian record," Whitten said. "The feeling wasn't quite as smooth as when we trained a couple of days ago, at the training camp in Wales. We worked hard for every tenth of second we got, and so I am very happy."

The Great Britain team finished with the second-best time (3:21.370) and will face the Canadians for the gold medal Friday.

Thursday's pursuit was the first time the velodrome, built for this summer's Olympic Games, has been used.