Cycling: Dawkins advances to sprint semi-finals

Eddie Dawkins. Photo / Greg Bowker

Eddie Dawkins has beaten Sam Webster 2-0 in their sprint duel at the cycling World Cup to advance to the semi-finals.

Both employed guile and cunning to position themselves for a final push, but Dawkins' power proved too much on both occasions.

The pair had delivered New Zealand a convincing start to the final day of competition, progressing into the final eight with narrow victories over Chinese pair Xu Chao (Dawkins) and Bao Saifei (Webster).

After the qualifying round, Dawkins produced a comfortable victory over Ireland's Eoin Mullen. Webster's proposition was more difficult in the form of German Robert Forstemann, a member of the German team which beat the New Zealanders in yesterday's team sprint final.

Forstemann is famous in the cycling fraternity for producing a video where he generated enough wattage to cook a piece of toast - On this occasion it was Webster who gave his rival a sprint grilling.

Dawkins will now race Australian Matthew Glaetzer.

Elsewhere, Nick Kergozou completed the fastest omnium 1km time trial in 1m 02.559s and fastest flying lap of 12.829s. He moved to 6th overall with the points race remaining.

In the women's equivalent, Holly Edmondston dropped from 11th to 15th today after five disciplines. She ranked 14th in the time trial and 20th in the flying lap.

In the keirin, Natasha Hansen failed to progress to the second round in her heat, but won her repechage to advance.