RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi claimed China's first ever Olympic track cycling gold medal when they won the women's team sprint title on Friday, beating Russia in the final.

The Chinese broke the world record in qualifying for the final and were too strong for Russians Anastasia Voinova and Daria Shmeleva as they sped to gold.

Germany beat Australia for the bronze.

It was a joyous moment for China who four years ago at the London Olympics were disqualified having thought they had won the event.

Gong and Zhong were also denied a world championship gold in March when they were demoted to silver because of a technicality in the final against Russia.