Cycling: Kiwis dominate track finals

Tim Gudsell led the New Zealand charge at the Oceania cycling championships in Wanganui yesterday, contributing a gold and a bronze to the host nation's bag of eight medals on the opening day of track competition.

Gudsell won the 15,000m scratch race after earlier taking a bronze in the 4000m individual pursuit.

The other golds were won by Jason Allen in the individual pursuit and David Cresswell in the 1000m time trial.

New Zealand's silver medals came from Marc Ryan (individual pursuit), Peter Latham (scratch race) Liz Williams (sprint) and Catherine Sell (20km points race).

Australia were second in the medal tally with two gold medals through Anna Meares in the women's sprint and Rochelle Gilmore in the 20km points race and a bronze from Kerri Meares in the women's sprint. Auckland were third in the medal tally with three bronzes and Canterbury fourth with one silver.

New Zealand team manager Michael Flynn was happy with the opening night's effort.

"Tim Gudsell and Catherine Sell rode well and we were competitive in the women's sprint," Flynn told NZPA.

"It was an excellent first night with some really good racing. Gudsell's effort in the scratch race was excellent but from the point of team racing, if Peter Latham and Richard Bowker hadn't gone and got there, then Gudsell would have been (caught and) spat out (by the bunch).

"Sell's effort in the points race was a good learning experience for her -- she needed to show she can sprint with the best and I think she can.

"She just needs to change her tactics slightly," added Flynn.

Cresswell won the 1000m time trial in a time of one minute 05.735 seconds, pipping Canterbury's Hayden Godfrey, who clocked 1min 05.794sec. Third was Auckland's Neil Campbell who had a time of 1min 07.562sec.

In the glamour 4000m individual pursuit, Allen beat New Zealand teammate Ryan in the final and clinch a place in next year's world track championships in Bordeaux, France in April.

Allen who told NZPA it was the first win that he remembered scoring over Ryan, clocked 4min 35.01sec to his rival's 4min 37.97.

"This is a good stepping stone for the Commonwealth Games -- the New Zealand 1-2-3 in this event shows the quality of the guys in the squad who are starting to step up and hopefully in the next couple of years really start to show through on the world circuit," Allen said.

Gudsell, who clocked a faster time than Ryan, 4min 35.18, beat Australian Phillip Thuax (4min 40.84sec) for third.

In the women's sprint final Williams tried to run from the front at the bell on the final lap of the first race but Australian champion Meares caught her with 50 metres to go and won by half a bike's length to take a 1-0 lead.

In the second race, Williams changed tactics, playing the chaser's role but Meares held the inside line strongly and completed a 2-0 win.

The Melbourne-based Williams said she still had a lot to learn in reading races but was confident she would be a consistent top racer "once I get that in my head".

The women's 20km points race was a straight battle between Gilmore and Sell.

Gilmore took an early lead and hometown favourite Sell was forced to play catch-up before losing narrowly with 26 points to Gilmore's 29. Marina Duvnyak of Auckland took third with just 10 points and no other rider in the 14-strong field scored any points.

"I tried really hard but Rochelle's one of the best sprinters in the world and I sort of just didn't have the gas on the line," Sell told NZPA.

"I went into the race with a couple of plans, not knowing if I had enough speed in the sprints but I was finding I was and it was a matter of working out how to beat Rochelle in each of the sprints.

"I worked it out towards the end -- get her to lead out and try and crowd it to make her go wide -- but it was a bit too late."

- NZPA