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 teams pursuit final at the Dunc Gray Velodrome in Sydney last night.
It was New Zealand's second medal of the meet following Greg Henderson's victory in the points race on Friday.
The pursuiters recorded an outstanding four minutes, 05.301 seconds, half a second inside the previous New Zealand best.
Nritain won in a brilliant 4min 01.196secs, 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 teams pursuit in 2005.
Team manager Craig Adair said the team impressed to improve on their outstanding heats ride yesterday 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.
"It's the best time ever recorded by a New Zealand combination and there's lots of improvement left in them yet.
" 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."
Ashburton's 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.
New Zealand results, Day two finals:
Men's 4000m team pursuit: Britain 4min 01.196sec 1, New Zealand (Sam Bewley, Westley Gough, Marc Ryan and Jesse Sergent) 4:05.301 2; Australia 4:03.248 3, Netherlands 4:07.188 4.
Men's scratch race: Roger Kluge (Netherlands) 1, Zachary Bell (Canada) 2, Milan Kadlec (Czechoslovakia) 3. Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) 13th.
Women's points race: Giorgia Bronzini (South Africa) 11 points 1, Li Yan Chi (China) 10, Jarmila Machacova (Czechoslavakia) 9. Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand) 16th.
- NZPA
