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APELDOORM, Netherlands — Canada earned its first gold medal in the men’s team pursuit while moving into the overall lead in the World Cup standings with a first-place finish Saturday in Round 2 of the track World Cup.

After trailing Belgium in the final over the first 3,000 metres, the Canadian team of Aidan Caves, Adam Jamieson, Jay Lamoureux and Bayley Simpson had their fastest split of the race over the final 1,000 to win with a time of four minutes and 2.144 seconds.

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Belgium crossed the line over four seconds later for silver.

“We were aware that they (the Belgians) were probably going to go out hot, but we didn’t panic because we all knew that we were the stronger team,” said Caves. “We knew that if we stayed strong that we have consistently had a faster final (kilometre) than most of the other teams, so that’s what we focused on — to come back from the little bit they were up on us.

“It worked out pretty well to plan.”

Canada leads the overall standings with 1,800 points, followed by Round 1 winner Britain at 1,700. France also has 1,700 points.