Meares, McCulloch defend women's team sprint crown

Meares and McCullough set a new world record in a time of 32.923sec to leave China with the silver, while Lithuania beat Britain to claim the bronze.

"That's something that we've actually thrown up in the air between the two of us for a little while, somewhat jokingly that we'd ride in a 32," said Meares.

"14.1 last lap by Kaarle, that was special, and I think that was what got us the record tonight."

It means Meares, who won Australia's only track medal, a silver in the sprint, at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 has two golds from this year's championships after winning the 500m time trial on Wednesday.

With the woman's team sprint only recently being given Olympic status, this second successive win has given the Aussie duo a huge boost only two years away from the London Games.

McCullough said: "We're so happy so have defended our title, and really excited obviously going into the London Games being the best team in the world."

Team sprint final:

Australia (Anna Meares, Kaarle McCullough) 32.923sec (WR) bt China (Jinjie Gong, Junhong Lin) 33.192

Bronze medal:

Lithuania (Gintare Gaivenyte, Simona Krupeckaite) 33.109 bt Great Britain (Victoria Pendleton, Jessica Varnish) 33.593

Qualifying:

1. Australia (Anna Meares, Kaarle McCullough) 33.037sec, 2. China (Jinjie Gong, Junhong Lin) 33.244, 3. Lithuania (Gintare Gaivenyte, Simona Krupeckaite) 33.261, 4. Britain (Victoria Pendleton, Jessica Varnish) 33.383, 5. France 33.490, 6. Germany 33.604, 7. Netherlands 33.672, 8. Russia 34.269, 9. Poland 35.058, 10. Hong Kong 35.252, 11. Greece 36.008, 12. Thailand 37.325