Having finished second behind Australia in qualifying, China’s Jinjie Gong and Tianshi Zhong began the gold medal ride as underdogs against the pairing of Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton, but produced an excellent ride to better their rivals.

The Chinese duo clocked a time of 32.311sec to take the gold medal with Meares and Morton having to settle for silver, finishing 0.277 adrift, while Russia’s Daria Shmeleva and Anastasiia Voinova backed up their victory at the recent European Championships by beating Germany to bronze.

Germany did have team sprint success in the men’s event with their trio of Rene Enders, Max Niederlag and Joachim Eilers clocking a time of 43.095 to defeat Poland in the gold medal ride, with The Netherlands completing the podium after seeing off the challenge of Australia in the contest for bronze.

World record holders Australia surprisingly only managed a sixth-place finish in the women’s team pursuit and Canada took full advantage as their quartet of Jasmin Glaesser, Allison Beveridge, Kirsti Lay and Stephanie Roorda crossed the line in 4min 20.139sec to claim gold.

The time saw them claim a dominant victory over the United States, who finished in 4:25.826, while Great Britain defeated China in the bronze medal ride despite completing the four kilometre distance a rider short, with Elinor Barker pulling out due to illness.

Switzerland and Russia had a thrilling battle for gold in the men’s final with the latter triumphing by 0.9 seconds, as their quartet crossed the line in a winning time of 4:01.064.

Having been beaten by Switzerland in the first round, Australia bounced back by winning bronze ahead of Denmark, although they will have been frustrated as their time of 4:01.060 would have proved enough to take the gold medal.

The final gold of the opening day of racing was claimed by Hong Kong’s King Lok Cheung, who scored a total of 58 points to claim victory in the men’s points race, with his nearest rival Eloy Teruel Rovira ending on 55.

Edwin Avila Vanegas claimed the host country's first medal after ending on 52 points to claim bronze, with Ukraine’s Roman Gladysh finishing some way adrift on 43 to end outside the medal positions.


Related stories
October 2015: Archibald and Trott complete hat-trick of golds on final day of European Track Cycling Championships
October 2015: Russian Voinova breaks world record to secure second gold medal at European Track Cycling Championships
October 2015: Dutch delight as sprinters score double gold at European Track Cycling Championships
October 2015: Britain secure double team pursuit gold at European Track Cycling Championships
October 2015: British team pursuiters dominate on opening day of European Track Cycling Championships