Cycling: Sergent and flying Aussie to contest gold

Jesse Sergent competes in the Mens 4000m Individual Persuit at the IG Sports Complex. Photo / Getty Images

NEW DELHI - New Zealand track cyclist Jesse Sergent has qualified for the Commonwealth Games individual pursuit final but will have his work cut out winning gold against flying Australian Jack Bobridge.

World championship silver medallist Sergent and the man he beat into bronze Bobridge will square off in what shapes as a world class final later today.

Bobridge will take a decisive mental edge into the showdown after clocking the quickest time in qualifying, a blistering four minutes 14.845 seconds. The Games record time was the fourth fastest in history and nearly 2sec quicker than Sergent's very impressive 4min 16.751sec.

The small crowd at the Indira Ghandi Sports Complex witnessed a highly competitive trans-Tasman showdown. The two nations will also square off for the bronze medal, with New Zealand's Sam Bewley third-quickest courtesy of a 4min 19.612 time, which was just 0.139 faster than Australian Michael Hepburn.

Feilding road professional Sergent, 22, rode the final qualifying race and went out hard to qualify first. He was quicker than Bobridge's time through the first 2000m of the 4000m event but couldn't maintain that rate until the end.

There are other New Zealand medal prospects later in the session today -- notably Eddie Dawkins in the 1km time trial and Alison Shanks in the 500m time trial.

- NZPA