French ice dance duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron produced a world record- breaking performance to win gold with a total score of 226.98, beating their own previous high score of 226.61.

"I think we don't believe it yet. Honestly it feels completely unreal," Papadakis said. "We have been waiting for this. This is the medal that we wanted."

The pair, who have known each other since the age of nine, became the first French duo to win gold in the event since Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat in Salt Lake City in 2002.

"This medal is a symbol of everything we have gone through over the past four years, and all the work we have done over the course of our careers," said Papadakis, now 26.

Her dancing partner Cizeron, 27, added: "We've been doing it for 17 years, so we know we can rely on each other and have confidence in our work in training."

'I even invited him to my birthday party'

Not that the two got off to the best start as children, when they were paired together by Papadakis' mother, herself an ice dancing instuctor. 

"I often said to myself: 'Why has she stuck me with this idiot?'" laughed Cizeron in a recent interview with Ski Chrono.

Papadakis recalls little, saying: "We were nine, I remember arriving at the ice rink and being told 'You're dancing with Guillaume,' so I went. We knew each other, we were friends — I even invited him to my birthday party!"

Although Cizeron insists: "No, your mother invited me so that we could get to know each other better!"

Getting on as well as they do, the duo are sure to enjoy their success in Beijing even more.

Gold medals

In other gold medal news, the US dominated the debut of the monobob, a new women-only event. 

Kaillie Humphries, formerly of Canada, won gold for the third time in her career. She completed four runs in four minutes, 19.27 seconds to lead a gold-silver finish for the US women's program, with teammate Elana Meyers Taylor placing second. Christine de Bruin, of Canada, took bronze.

Hosts China secured their fifth gold of the Games with Xu Mengtao topping the podium in the Freestyle Skiing Women's Aerials.

Austrian quartet Stefan Kraft, Daniel Huber, Jan Hörl and Manuel Fettner took gold in the Men's Team Ski Jumping (large hill), with Slovenia winning silver and Germany bronze.

Germany leading two-man bob event

Germany's two-man bobsleighers are in a strong position going into the second half of the event, with German duos currently occupying first (Francesco Friedrich & Thorsten Margis), second (Johannes Lochner & Florian Bauer) and fourth (Christoph Hafer & Matthias Sommer) positions. 

The duo representing the Russian Olympic Committee are in third.

The final two runs take place from 14:15 (CET) on Tuesday.

Valieva free to compete 

Figure skater Kamila Valieva will have the chance to win a second gold at the Beijing Games after a doping suspension was lifted.

The Russian won in the team competition and is a favorite for individual gold.