Gong finally takes gold after years of hurt

China's Gong Jinjie finally ended years of near misses by partnering Zhong Tianshi to World Track Cycling Championship gold in the women's team sprint on Wednesday.
Four times before Gong had finished a runner-up and twice she won a bronze medal, while alongside Guo Shuang she had been denied Olympic gold in 2012 after an early changeover saw the Chinese pair disqualified despite beating Germans Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte in the final.
But now, Gong has finally got her hands on a precious gold medal after she and Zhong broke the world record, covering the 500m course in 32.034sec, shaving more than a tenth of a second off the Germans' previous mark.
Russian pair Daria Shmeleva and Anastasia Voynova had set the pace in qualifying, although only beating Gong and Zhong by four hundredths of a second.
But the Russians had to settle for second as the Chinese produced a stunning final lap of two in the 500m sprint.
Australians Kaarle McCulloch and Anna Meares took bronze by stunning Vogel and Welte.
The German pair had won the last three world titles as well as the Olympics in London.
In the men's team sprint there was a controversial finish as New Zealand, the original winners, were demoted to second for an early changeover.
It meant hosts France won the gold medal, with Gregory Bauge taking a fifth world title in this discipline after winning four straight worlds from 2006 to 2009.
It was ironic as his opening 250m leg of the 750m three-lap race had left the French trailing by a third of a second.
Kevin Sireau won his third gold in the event having been part of the French team with Bauge in 2008 and 2009 while for Michael D'Almeida it was a first title.
New Zealand trio Edward Dawkins, Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster had been by far the fastest team in qualifying and took the tape more than three tenths of a second ahead of France.
It would have been their second straight title having won silver in 2013 and bronze the year before that, but instead they were left heart-broken.
World record holders Germany, comprised of Robert Foerstemann -- the biggest thighs in world sport -- Joachim Eilers and Rene Enders, pipped Russians Denis Dmitriev, Nikita Shurshin and Pavel Yakushevskiy for the bronze.
It was Foerstemann's fifth medal in the discipline having been champion in 2010.
Earlier, Germany's Stephanie Pohl won the women's points race.
The 27-year-old came second to Australia's Amy Cure last year in Cali, Colombia, but went one better this time around, beating Japan's Minami Uwano into second with Kimberly Geist of the United States picking up the bronze.
Pohl made her winning move around halfway through the 100-lap, 25km race by breaking away from the pack with France's Elise Delzenne to lap the field.
Geist had already made a similarly bold move and Uwano did likewise a little later on but Pohl dominated the closing stages to win by 10 points, with Delzenne taking fourth.
Source :AFP