KEY POINTS:
A World Cup silver medal ride in record time by a youthful New Zealand men's pursuit team has been a huge boost to their confidence.
The quartet of Sam Bewley (Rotorua), Westley Gough (Waipukurau), Marc Ryan (Timaru) and Jesse Sergent (Feilding) finished second to a crack British team in the 4000m team's pursuit final at the Dunc Gray Velodrome in Sydney.
It was New Zealand's second medal of the meet following Greg Henderson's victory in the points race.
The pursuiters recorded an outstanding 4m 05.301s, half a second inside the previous New Zealand best.
Britain won in a brilliant 4m 01.196s, while Australia headed off the Netherlands for third in a time faster than New Zealand's.
Three of the four New Zealand riders - Bewley, Sergent and Gough - were in the national junior combination who won the world junior championship team's pursuit in 2005.
Team manager Craig Adair said the team impressed to improve on their outstanding heats ride where they pipped the top Australian combination to earn a ride-off for the gold medal.
"They really dug deep after their superb ride in the afternoon," said Adair. "It's the best time ever recorded by a New Zealand combination.
"They are very motivated to go on and improve again next weekend in the World Cup in Beijing and earn a spot for next year's Olympics. They now believe that they can achieve and be a factor in the Olympics."
Hayden Roulston was 13th in the men's scratch race final and Joanne Kiesanowski from Christchurch was 16th in the final of the women's points race.
- NZPA
