LONDON, Aug 2: Track cycling got off to a speedy start at the London Olympics on Thursday with a string of world records broken and a double disqualification drama on the first day of racing at the new velodrome.

Britain won the men’s cycling team sprint but China were disqualified in the final of the women's event, handing victory to Germany.

The women's team sprint world record fell three times in rapid succession, with home favourites Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish of Britain clocking 32.526 seconds over the two laps of the velodrome during qualifying to improve on the previous mark of 32.549 set by Germany in April.

But British fans were quickly silenced by the Chinese pairing of Gong Jinjie and Guo Shuang, who went on to beat the record twice.

Having set a record of 32.447sec in topping qualifying, the Chinese pair then led the first round times in a new world mark of 32.442.

And in a huge upset for the home fans, Pendleton and Varnish saw their medal hopes vanish when they were later relegated for making an early change in the first round.

More controversy erupted in the final when China won, but were then eliminated themselves for an infringement, giving gold to Germany, who had already seen defeat turn to victory against Britain.

Later, Britain beat France in world record time in the men's track cycling team sprint final.

Britain broke their own world record set earlier in the day to win their second straight Olympic gold medal as the team of Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy scorched the pine wood surface of the velodrome, nicknamed the Pringle for its resemblance to a curvy potato snack, to post a time of 42.600 seconds, bettering the mark of 42.747 they had set in the previous round.

France won the silver medal with a time of 43.013 seconds while Germany beat Australia to claim the bronze.—AP