KEY POINTS:
World champion Haydn Godfrey grabbed gold on the second day of the World Cup cycling in Beijing yesterday.
Godfrey, of Christchurch, won the final of the men's scratch race, while the men's team pursuit took silver in their final.
The world omnium champion was in a group of 11 riders that put a lap on the field in the 60-lap, 15km final.
Godfrey worked his way into a strong position near the front of the field and held off the challengers to win the sprint from Great Britain's Chris Newton.
Newton, the former world champion in the points and team pursuit, won the points race final on the first day.
The Australian combination edged out the New Zealanders in the final of the team pursuit with 9/10ths of a second separating the two teams in an exciting final.
The New Zealand quartet of Jesse Sergent, Sam Bewley, Peter Latham and Marc Ryan had posted the best qualifying time of 4:02.793, four seconds faster than Australia.
But they were unable to go quicker in the final as Australia grabbed the early advantage.
Only 5/100ths separated the two teams as the Kiwis fought back at the 2km mark and 2/10ths in favour of the Australians at the 3km before they edged away to win in 4:01.995, with the Kiwis in 4:02.890.
Southland's Simon Van Velthooven was edged out of a medal in the final of the men's kierin after a strong performance.
He finished fourth in a strong field won by Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang after the young New Zealander was second in his heat and third in the second round to progress to the final.
Wanganui's Catherine Cheatley was seventh in the final of the women's points race despite a pile-up, winning a sprint along the way, while rookie Kaytee Boyd of Auckland was 14th in the women's 500m time trial.
New Zealand has won three golds and a silver in the first two days of competition at the Laoshan Velodrome, with one day remaining.
- NZPA
