Cycling: Female sprinters navigate through qualifiers

New Zealand's female sprinters all safely navigated their way through this afternoon's qualifying stages of the sprint on the second day of the UCI Juniors Track World Championships in Invercargill.

Auckland's Paige Paterson averaged almost 62km/h on her way to posting the fastest time of the field of 17 riders in the opening round to finish in a time of 11:671.

The other two Kiwis, Victoria Steel from Canterbury and Kate Dunlevey from Southland, missed out on the top seven automatic qualifiers in the time trial but were successful in their repechage races to move into the next round.

In the first round, Paterson kept her seeding by beating Ummi Hamimah Mohamad of Malaysia to earn a spot in tonight's quarter-finals.

Steel also entered tonight's main draw after upsetting fourth-seeded Australian Allee Proud.

Meanwhile, local rider Dunlevey came through another exciting repechage race to add to the list of New Zealanders in the quarters.

The remaining eight riders to sprint for the gold medal this evening comprise three from New Zealand, two from Russia, and one each from USA, Netherlands and Australia.

The men's omnium got underway this afternoon as 16 riders tackled the 250m flying lap for the first of six events over two days.

European Championship bronze medallist Jon Dibben (GBR) took the honours in a time of 13:578 from Fernando Gaviria Rendon (COL) and Tirian McManus (AUS) with New Zealand's Taylah Harrison in fourth.

The 18-year-old Cantabrian posted a time of 13:808 the flying lap, which is not his favoured event.

"He will be happy with fourth place in the flying lap as it's not really his specialty event. He just rode it really smart and did a good, efficient ride," said New Zealand omnium technical advisor Hayden Godfrey.

Stadium Southland Veldrome is expected to host another full house tonight to witness three more finals, as well as the second and third legs of the men's omnium.

"Taylah's a very emotional rider if the crowd gets in behind him that should really lift him up a lot," said Godfrey who was the 2008 Omnium world champion.

Day 2 results:

Women's sprint qualifying (top 7 to round 1): Paige Paterson (NZL) 11.671, 1; Lidia Pluzhnikova (RUS) 11.680, 2; Daria Shmeleva (RUS) 11.690, 3; Audrey Lee Proud (AUS) 11.699, 4; Caitlin Ward (AUS) 11.712, 5; Elis Ligtlee (NED) 11.827, 6; Jennifer Valente (USA) 11.832, 7; Martha Bayona (COL) 11.925, 8; Victoria Steel (NZL) 11.993, 9; Kate Dunlevey (NZL) 12.077, 10; Shana Dalvang (BEL) 12.301, 11; Ummi Mohamad (MAS) 12.472, 12; Aline Tamez Vela (MEX) 12.560, 13; Chloe Chepigin (USA) 12.634, 14; Audrey Labrie (CAN) 12.710, 15; Jodi Goodridge (TRI) 13.101, 16; Aziza Browne (TRI) 13.244, 17.

Repechage heat 1: Bayona bt Browne, Steel bt Goodridge, Dunlevey bt Labrie, Dalving bt Chepigin, Mohamad bt Tamez Vela.

Round 1: Paterson bt Mohamad, Pluzhnikova bt Dalving, Shmeleva bt Dunlevey, Steel bt Proud, Ward bt Bayona, Ligtee bt Valente.

Round 1 repechage, heat 1: Valente 1, Proud 2, Mohamad 3. Heat 2: Dunlevey 1, Dalving 2, Bayona 3.

Men Omnium, flying lap: Jon Dibben (GBR) 13.578, 1; Fernando Gaviria (COL) 13.652, 2; Tirian McManus (AUS) 13.691, 3; Tayla Harrison (NZL) 13.808, 4; Vladyslav Kreminskyl (UKR) 13.902, 5.