China claimed the country's first ever cycling Olympic gold medal after Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi successfully won the women's team sprint at the ongoing 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

The dynamic Chinese duo defeated the cycling pair Daria Shmeleva and Anastasia Voinova of Russia in the final to walk away with the gold. Meanwhile, Mirian Welte and Kristina Voegel of Germany settled for the bronze after beating Anna Meares and Stephanie Morton of Australia at the Rio Olympic Velodrome.

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According to Fox Sports, the Chinese cycling duo Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi set a new world record of 31.928 seconds in the semifinal stage.

Gong, 29, who is also a member of the provincial Jilin Team since the year 2002, and Zhong, 25, also broke an Olympic record in the qualifying round of the event.

At the 2012 London Games, Gong, who was then teamed-up with 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 championship round. The Asian giants won two silvers and one bronze medal in cycling four years ago and bagged one bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

The Olympic 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 at the 2012 London Olympic Games. 

TagsRio Olympics 2016, gong jinjie, zhong tianshi, daria shmeleva, anastasia voinova