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RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- China claimed its first cycling Olympic gold after Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi won the women's team sprint in the Rio Olympic Velodrome here on Friday.
The Chinese due beat Daria Shmeleva and Anastasiia Voinova of Russia in the final to take the gold, while the bronze went to Germany who defeated Australia.
"This is a historic medal. It is the first time. We have worked so hard for this. We are like old warriors who have kept fighting. This medal is not just for the two of us, because there are many people behind us who have worked very hard," said Gong.
Gong and Zhong set a world record of 31.928 seconds in the first round after breaking an Olympic record in the qualifying round.
"We didn't want to think too much about winning or losing. We concentrated on making the best race possible. This is the first Chinese gold medal - we did it. Today we did not want to make any mistake. We stayed close together so we can make the last sprint as fast as possible," said Zhong.
Four years ago in London, Gong and Guo Shuang picked up a silver medal in the women's cycling team sprint after being relegated from gold for making a lane change in the final.
"We just want to prove and show the world that how powerful Chinese cycling is! We won the gold that should be ours four years ago, "added Gong.
Later on, led by Bradley Wiggines, Britain won the men's team pursuit after breaking the world record twice, including the 3:50.265 seconds WR against Australia in the gold final.
"I wanted to go out on top and it was one of the best finals ever. Hats off to the Australians - they're the reason we get up in the morning. It's a relief. Eighteen months ago, there were doubts that I could come back and do this. It was gold or nothing for this team," said Wiggines.
Denmark took the bronze by beating New Zealand.
China won two silvers and one bronze in cycling in 2012 London Olympics and one bronze in Beijing 2008.
The women's team sprint is a track cycling event contested by teams of two women cyclists. The format consists of two rounds: in the first round, teams compete against the clock to set a qualifying time. The top four teams go through to the final round, where the first and second placed teams compete against each other in the gold medal race-off and the third and fourth teams compete against each other in the bronze medal race-off.
This event was added to the Olympic program in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
