Having won three golds yesterday in the time trial events, Chinese athletes continued their excellent start to the four day event, with further successes in the 3 kilometre individual pursuits.

Zhangyu Li qualified fastest for the men's C1 pursuit event and underlined his authority over the distance by taking gold in 3min 54.814sec ahead of Canada's Ross Wilson, who earned silver after posting a time of 4:04.019.

Argentina's Fernand Rodrigo Lopez rounded off the podium after completing the distance in 4:14.819, with Germany's Erich Winkler narrowly missing out on the medals, following his time of 4:15.493.

Li's victory saw him collect a second gold of the World Championships having won the C1 kilometre time trial event and his compatriot Jieli Li also earning a second title after she posted a time of 4:58.428 to win the women's C1 event.

London 2012 champion Guihua Liang continued the Chinese gold rush in a closely fought men's C2 competition with top four men all finishing within four seconds of each other.

With Liang and Colombia's Alvaro Galvis Becerra separated by just 0.3 seconds in qualification, the final promised to be one of the highlights of the day, with Liang time of 3:51.592 proving enough to take the gold.

Galvis Becerra finished a further two seconds back on 3:53.237, while Russia's Arslan Gilmutdinov won the bronze medal race in 3:52.759, finishing 2.874 seconds ahead of Ireland's Colin Lynch.

Home favourite Alyda Norbruis earned her second gold in two days ©Getty Images



Alyda Norbruis was the host's sole gold medallist on the opening day of the Championships and replicated the feat in the women's C2 race in 4:18.005.

Germany's Denise Schlinder won the C3 event in 4:18.707 to prevent Jamie Whitmore from winning her second gold after the American posted a time of 4:21.624.

The United States did taste success in the equivalent men's race as Joseph Berenyi dominated his final against Masaki Fujita, ending six seconds clear of the Japanese athlete to take the rainbow jersey in 3:37.399.

A further six gold medals will be on offer tomorrow, with more individual pursuit events set to take place on the penultimate day to the World Championships.

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