France take team sprint gold on home track
ST QUENTIN EN YVELINES, France (Reuters) - France won their first title at their home track cycling world championships on Wednesday when they took the men's team sprint after New Zealand were relegated in the final.
New Zealand were the fastest against France but they were demoted for changing lanes too soon in a relay, handing Gregory Bauge, Kevin Sireau and Michael d'Almeida the French a first team sprint title since 2009.
New Zealand, the defending champions, took silver and Germany won the bronze.
The Germans' performance was better than that of their women, who finished a mediocre fourth in the team sprint after winning the previous three world titles and the Olympic gold in London in 2012.
Gold went to China, Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi setting a world record of 32.034 seconds ahead of Russia who grabbed silver.
Australia beat Germany to claim bronze.
German Stephanie Pohl won gold in the women's point race one year after winning silver in the discipline, beating Japanese Minami Uwano and American Kim Geist who took silver and bronze respectively.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond)
