Cycling-Dominant Germany retain women's sprint title in world record time

PARIS : Germany strengthened their grip on the women's team sprint event as they set a new world record to claim the world title by beating China in the final at the St Quentin en Yvelines velodrome on Wednesday.

Pauline Grabosch, Emma Hinze and Lea Sophie Friedrich clocked 45.967 seconds to improve the mark they set at last year's world championships, where they won the title, by 0.097 seconds.

Britain took third place against the Netherlands in the race for bronze.

In the men's race, Australia beat defending champions the Netherlands in 41.600 by a slim margin of 0.043 while there was another bronze for Britain when they topped Germany.

Italian Martina Fidanza retained her title in the 10km scratch race, as she jumped onto the wheel of Maike van der Duin with two laps to go and went solo in the final lap to easily beat the Dutchwoman.

Britain's Jessica Roberts took third place.

"I was relaxed this year because I won the (rainbow) jersey last year. I just thought let's see and I finished very good," said Fidanza.