Cycling: Four crack 11s barrier for teams sprint

New Zealand's male track cycling sprinters seem to be listening to national sprint coach Tim Carswell.

Carswell wants four riders good enough to qualify for a teams sprint combination at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March.

And four riders cracked the 11s barrier in qualifying for the sprint on the opening night of the national track cycling championships in Wanganui last night.

Waikato sprinter Peter Murray, 35, stood out with his stunning 10.77s ride.

That is still 0.25s outside the Games qualifying mark for the individual sprint, but backs up Murray's improvement this year.

The others to beat 11s were top-ranked Nathan Seddon, of Otago, who was the slowest of the four on 10.99s, Auckland-based British rider Neil Campbell (10.91s) and Auckland veteran Justin Grace (10.93s).

All went comfortably through to their next round.

Proceedings intensify today with the men's sprint semifinals and final and the elite men's and women's individual pursuit events.

- NZPA