Cycling: NZ women's pursuit team finish fourth

The New Zealand women's pursuit team has finished fourth at the world track cycling championships in London. Photo / Guy Swarbrick.

The New Zealand women's pursuit team has finished fourth at the world track cycling championships in London.

The quartet of Lauren Ellis, Rushlee Buchanan, Jaime Nielsen and Racquel Sheath were dominated by Britain in the bronze medal ride.

The locals posted the fifth fastest time in history, finishing 3.685s clear of the Kiwis. Britain's average speed was 56.131km/h compared to New Zealand's 55.336km/h.

The New Zealanders could not emulate their national record time from earlier in the day. Canada kept them out of the gold medal ride by 0.003s, despite a comeback across the second half of the race.

"That's like 4cms over 4km," Cycling New Zealand high performance director Mark Elliott said. "But they've delivered above expectations at this meet."

There were mixed fortunes for two members of New Zealand's gold medal-winning team sprint.

Sam Webster qualified for the quarter-finals, but Eddie Dawkins fell short. Webster will race against Olympic champion Jason Kenny tomorrow.

Aaron Gate lies last in the men's omnium after failing to finish the opening discipline, the scratch race. He suffered a penalty of -40 points and remains on -8, despite finishing fifth in the individual pursuit.

"That's the knife edge to a world championships," Elliott said. "Halfway through the race Aaron decided there was an opportunity to take a lap. He got within 10m but rest of the field wound up. The effort cost him too much energy, they eventually dropped him off the back... and that was the end of it."

Gate still faces the elimination race, 1km time trial, flying lap and points race.
Dylan Kennett finished seventh in the men's individual pursuit.