Team Pursuit (4,000 metres), Men

With the world’s two best individual pursuiters, Gintautus Umaras and Vyacheslav Yekimov, the Soviet Union was a huge favorite. In the qualifying the 11th team out, Australia, broke the world record with a time of 4:16.32. But the last to start was the Soviet Union team, and they broke that record with a time of 4:16.10. The fast track was producing multiple records as in the quarter-finals, the East Germans recorded 4:14.45 in the first heat, only to see the Soviets better that with 4:14.22 in the fourth heat, as they defeated Italy. The final came down to the GDR against the USSR, and the world record again went down. In fact both teams surpassed the mark from the quarter-finals, with the Soviets winning the gold medal with 4:13.31 to the East Germans 4:14.09.