China takes silver of women's team pursuit at UCI Track Cycling World Cup

LONDON -- China trailed behind Russia to finish second in the women's team sprint event at the second leg of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow, Scotland on Friday.

The 28-year-old Olympic champion Zhong Tianshi paired up with new partner Zhuang Wei to beat Britain in the first round and reach the gold medal final with the fastest winning time of 32.802 seconds.

In the final, the Chinese duo was edged by Russian Ekaterina Rogovaya and Dariawith Shmeleva with a tiny margin of 0.003 second, taking the silver in 32.792 seconds.

Zhong and teammate Gong Jinjie won this event at Rio in 2016, clinching China's first ever cycling gold at the Olympic Games.

The Netherlands took gold of the men's team sprint while Denmark and Britain dashed to win the men's and women's team pursuit titles respectively.

The 2019-2020 UCI Track Cycling World Cup with six legs is part of the qualifying campaign for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.