Cycling: NZ end worlds with four medals

New Zealand riders could not add to their record-equalling tally of four medals on the final day of the world track cycling championships at Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, today (NZT).

Despite some solid performances - Joanne Kiesanowski finished ninth overall in the women's omnium, young Southland sprinter Eddie Dawkins was 10th in the men's kilo time trial, and Tom Scully combined with Aaron Gate to be 13th in the 50km Madison - New Zealand ended the championships with four medals, equalling their tally of last year.

Dawkins, 21, clocked one minute 03.534 seconds over the 1000m time trial on the heavy track at Omnisport Apeldoorn.

He started conservatively to be 18th fastest over the first lap and built his kilo from there, coming home impressively with the fourth fastest final lap.

Kiesanowski had a solid start to the day with a 3:46.40 effort to be 12th fastest in the individual pursuit which listed her into ninth place going into the all-important scratch race.

She worked hard with Australian Amy Cure to bring back a dangerous break but Canada's World Cup winner Tara Whitten and Tatsiana Sharakova, of Belarus, attacked immediately to put a lap on the field. The New Zealander worked hard to finish sixth in the bunch sprint to remain in the top 10.

The Canterbury rider was ninth in a sound 36.68 run in the 500m time trial to snatch a top-10 finish.

Canada's Tara Whitten claimed the rainbow jersey to go with her World Cup series win, ahead of American favourite Sarah Hammer.

Young riders Aaron Gate (Auckland) and Tom Scully (Invercargill) were 13th in a stacked field in the men's 50km Madison, recovering after Gate crashed early but managed to get back into the action with a torn racing suit.

Australians Leigh Howard and Cameron Meyer retained their world championship title after lapping the field while the local Netherlands team won the most points but finished a lap down to be content with third.

BikeNZ high performance director Mark Elliott gave the New Zealand team a pass mark but warned they faced challenges ahead of next year's London Olympics.

"Four medals matches the best we achieved last year in Denmark but two of those came in the individual pursuit which, while important to our overall programme, won't be contested at the Olympics," Elliott said.

"We made some significant gains in the last three years to move in to the same stratosphere as the super powers in the sport like Great Britain, Australia, France and Germany and now our improvements are in small increments.

"We are clearly world class in pursuiting although our combinations were not always firing here. In some respects that is exciting to know we were in the medal hunt when not at our absolute best. We are up there in the omnium and our sprinters are making gradual improvement as a very young group, especially in world terms where they are in reality stronger prospects for 2016.

"We've have shown we have two very good omnium riders, especially in Shane Archbold (second in the men's event) who is an exciting prospect. Both riders struggled in the bunch races which has been their strength and will be a key to their success next year."

- NZPA