Chinese rowers Chen Yunxia, Zhang Ling, Lü Yang and Cui Xiaotong celebrate after winning on Wednesday in Tokyo. Photo: VCG

China won the women's quadruple sculls at the Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday, as the Chinese quad finished in 6:05.13.

Cui Xiaotong, Lü Yang, Zhang Ling and Chen Yunxia started strong and led all the way, finishing 6.23 seconds ahead of Poland, and shaved nearly two seconds off the previous world best result set by Germany in 2014.

"I'm delighted to see us finishing the race with a world best result," Cui told the Global Times after the race.

The quartet was the 2019 world champion and have remained unbeaten since then. They are ranked first in the world.

"I haven't gone home for almost two years due to the epidemic," Cui said. "We were training in Wuhan during the lockdown and during that time we were also trying to have our mentality prepared."

It is in women's quadruple sculls that China won its first Olympic rowing gold medal back in 2008. But China failed to do so in the following Olympics in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, until Wednesday's final in Tokyo.

Wednesday's race was postponed for a day because of a storm earlier this week. But the windy conditions on Wednesday produced a strong tail wind for the rowers at the Sea Forest Waterway, as the new world and Olympic best results were set in each of Wednesday's six medal races.

Earlier on Wednesday, China's Zhang Liang and Liu Zhiyu clinched a bronze medal in the men's double sculls, the first men's medal for China and Asia in an Olympic rowing event.

"Our goal was a gold medal," said Liu of the duo's leading in the middle of the race until they were overtaken by France and the Netherlands. They finished the race in 6:03.63.

"I think it's a breakthrough for China as it proves that we have the ability to compete against European rowers."

France won in 6:00.33, and the silver went to the Netherlands.