NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- China struck gold in both the women's and men's team sprint events as track cycling got underway at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday, with records falling throughout the day at the Izu Velodrome in Shizuoka Prefecture.
China defended the women's team sprint by clocking 45.370 seconds in the final, a new Asian record. Malaysia took silver in 48.566, while Chinese Taipei secured bronze.
"We performed at a level that could challenge for Olympic gold. Of course, we know that we still have to work harder to win world and Olympic titles," said Chinese rider Wang Lijuan.
Wang added that the Asian Games victory had given the team a major boost in morale and confidence ahead of the upcoming World Championships in Shanghai.
In the men's team sprint, China clocked 42.348 seconds in the first round to break the Asian Games record, then improved it to 42.152 seconds in the final to defeat host Japan for gold. Hong Kong, China took bronze.
"At the Hangzhou Asian Games, we competed at home but lost to Japan and missed out on the gold. We were quite disappointed at the time," said Chinese rider Liu Qi.
"This time, we turned that disappointment into motivation in our training and preparation. We are very happy to win the gold back on our opponent's home ground."
The team pursuit events also produced a series of record-breaking performances on Tuesday.
China set an Asian Games record of 4:16.766 in the women's team pursuit qualifying session, only for Japan to lower it to 4:14.496 in the following heat. In the men's team pursuit qualifying, China clocked 3:52.412 to make a Asian Games record, which Japan then broke with 3:52.279.
In the afternoon, both China and Japan advanced directly to Wednesday's women's team pursuit final after catching their respective opponents in the first round. In the men's event, China wrote another Games record of 3:49.845, surpassing the mark Japan had established earlier in the day, to reach the final.
Gold medals in the women's and men's team pursuit and the women's Keirin will be decided on Wednesday. ■
