Cycling: Nifty Nimke's pedalling gold

Germany's Stefan Nimke delighted home fans when he rode to gold in the men's one kilometre sprint on the opening day of the world track championships yesterday.

After the fireworks of the opening ceremony, Nimke - silver medallist at the Sydney Olympics - shocked the favourites with a fast time of 1m 01.225s for the four laps.

One of the first riders to go, Nimke then watched as the rest of the field failed to match his time.

Three-times champion Shane Kelly, of Australia, was closest in 1m 01.356s, with Frenchman Arnaud Tournant third, clocking 1m 01.644s.

Defending champion Chris Hoy, of Britain, finished out of the medals in fourth in 1m 01.707s, and Olympic champion Jason Queally could only manage ninth.

"I felt really good and knew I'd go near to the one-minute, one-second mark, and the result of the race proved it," Nimke said after pulling on the rainbow-coloured jersey awarded to cycling world champions.

"But I'm surprised to have won. It was hell having to wait so long for the last rider."

In other action on the covered Stuttgart track, Russian Olga Slusareva won her third consecutive world title in the women's points race and Franco Marvulli of Switzerland repeated his 2002 success in the men's scratch.

Slusareva waited until the final third of the race and then took points in all of the last six sprints to rack up a total of 27, eight clear of second-placed Edita Kubelskiene, of Lithuania, and 11 ahead of Cuba's Yoanka Gonzalez Perez.

Marvulli waited for the last two laps of the men's scratch race before going for gold. He chased after late attacker Alexander Gonzalez, of Colombia, and went past him in the final lap to hold off the chase of the main field.

He crossed the line five metres clear, with Frenchman Robert Sassone taking second and South African Jean-Pierre Van Zyl third in a close sprint.

* Dunedin's Greg Henderson came close to giving New Zealand a memorable opening.

The 2002 Commonwealth Games points race champion was in medals contention late in the 15km scratch race. However, he encountered problems in heavy traffic and had to make do with fifth place, a commendable performance in elite company.

A former teams pursuiter, Henderson, 27, will also contest the points race and madison.

His effort easily overshadowed that of Hadyn Godfrey, the only other New Zealander in action yesterday. He was 16th in the individual pursuit.

"He's a better rider than that," said coach Max Vertongen. "He's been a little out of sorts at training, so that was a bit disappointing."

- AGENCIES