Cycling: Gold for NZ at junior world champs

New Zealand junior cycling relived some of its glory days when the men's pursuit team won a gold medal at the world track championships in Vienna, Austria, today.

Westley Gough, Darren Shea, Sam Bewley and Jesse Sergeant beat Great Britain in the final, with Australia finishing third.

It is the first time New Zealand has secured a gold medal at the world junior track championships since Sarah Ulmer won the individual purusit in 1994.

The New Zealand team's qualifying time today of four minutes 14.404 seconds was 7.5sec faster than the previous best by a New Zealand junior team.

At the halfway stage in the final the team were clocked at 2min 06sec and on track for an even faster time before they eased off when the British riders faltered.

National track coach Terry Gyde was delighted with the team's performance, which followed silver medals yesterday to Bewley in the individual pursuit and Rushlee Buchanan in the women's points race.

"The team are on fire and the future is looking great," Gyde said.

Gyde paid tribute to junior team coach Tim Carswell.

"Tim Carswell deserves a lot of credit for the success as he has worked hard on the team.

"He's put in a huge amount of effort in recent years and it is great for Tim and New Zealand cycling that this team can deliver the ultimate result."

- NZPA