Cycling: Silver and bronze for NZ at London track World Cup

Wesley Gough leads the team pursuit.

New Zealand won silver and bronze on the opening day of the second UCI track cycling World Cup in London yesterday.

The men's team pursuit quartet grabbed silver and excellent qualifying points, which should cement their spot for February's world championship.

The world champion men's team sprint took out the bronze medal, as they did in the opening World Cup last month.

They were pipped by just 7/1000th of a second for a place in the final, finishing third fastest in an extraordinary qualifying session when 2/10ths of a second separated the top four teams.

Germany led the way with 43.700s on a sluggish London Velodrome with Australia second in 43.832 and New Zealand 43.839.

The Kiwi combination of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins then edged France, the former world champions, in the ride for the bronze clocking 43.713s. Germany were fractionally faster than the Kiwis in taking the gold medal over Australia.

In both team pursuits, the New Zealand coaches opted to use their specialist omnium riders Aaron Gate and Raquel Sheath for qualifying with Myron Simpson and Jaime Nielsen rested. Both riders came back into the team for the second ride to add a fresh boost in the exhausting three rides on the opening day.

The men's combination of Gate, Pieter Bulling, Westley Gough and Cam Karwowski clocked a solid 4:03.773 to be fourth fastest, three seconds behind top-ranked Australia but only narrowly slower than hosts Great Britain and Denmark.

Australia were favoured to progress in their semifinal with New Zealand but went down to three riders for their final push and then had Luke Davison puncture, which meant the team failed to finish. The Kiwis took full advantage to claim the win and move to the gold medal ride, with the Australians relegated to the ride for seventh and eighth.

New Zealand pushed hard to match Great Britain until the midway mark of the 4000m final but ran out of gas and had to settle for second.

The women were seventh fastest in London but dominated in their first-round clash against Germany, winning by more than three seconds.

The Germans' time was the second quickest of the other teams, which meant a repeat race for fifth and sixth.

The New Zealanders started well but both teams remained locked for the next 2000m before the Germans were the first to blink first, edged by 0.3s at the finish.

Great Britain came back from a slow start to win the final over Australia in 4:22.194 with Canada third.

The women's team sprint combination of Katie Schofield and Stephanie McKenzie were 10th fastest in 34.111s from the 22 teams, just over a second behind leaders China.

Gate and Sheath were due to begin the omnium competition (overnight) and the men sprinters raced the keirin and the women the individual sprint. NZME