Australian duo Anna Meares and Kaarle McCullough beat off China to successfully defend their team sprint crown at the world track cycling championships on Thursday.

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.

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.”