Cycling: Sprint cyclists show great potential

New Zealand's burgeoning young sprint team made their mark on the penultimate day of competition at the World Track Cycling championships in Copenhagen yesterday.

The trio of Eddie Dawkins, 21, Sam Webster, 19, and Ethan Mitchell, 19, all qualified for the elimination rounds in the men's sprint competition.

Although they did not get past the first round, all three produced significant personal best times, with Dawkins leading the way to qualify ninth fastest in 10.109s, under the New Zealand record time of 10.249s he set at the national championships last month.

"This was always going to be a hard ask as this is the first time these young guys have come here with the form to know they could be competitive at the highest level," said BikeNZ high performance director Mark Elliott.

"There were great results in the team sprint, kilo time trial and keirin and with just a small gain in the men's team sprint we are close to being in the hunt for medals.

"Two months ago that was a dream for these boys. They have done some great work over the last 12 months to really build their physiological development and confidence."

Dawkins (Invercargill) followed his record breaking efforts in the kilo time trial with another superb performance in sprint qualifying, to draw Australian Scott Sunderland in the first round. The Australian got the early jump and managed to hold off the powerful finish from the Southlander on the line.

Webster, the world junior champion, was narrowly beaten by half a wheel against sixth qualifier Francois Pervis (France) who rolled over the top of the super-talented kiwi in the last 20m.

Mitchell, a junior world team sprint champion, produced a smart performance but was no match for reigning world champion Greg Bauge (France) who kicked clear to win. Bauge went on to eliminate triple Beijing Olympic champion Chris Hoy in the third deciding race of their quarter-final.

Levin 20-year-old Gemma Dudley impressed with a top eight finish in the first ever omnium for women.

She set a personal best of 12.036s to finish ninth in 200m rolling sprint, with Dudley only 3/100ths of a second off fifth place. Dudley followed this with 10th place in the 5km scratch race and seventh in the 2000m individual pursuit, topped by the pursuit gold medallist Sarah Hammer (US) with Dudley setting a new best of 2m 24.842s.

Dudley was also seventh in the women's points race, grabbing fourth in the final sprint and part of the lead bunch to put a lap on the field and was seventh fastest in the 500m time trial.

The New Zealand combination of Marc Ryan and Tom Scully were 14th in the 50km Madison dominated by the Australian pair of Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard who won the gold medal.

The championships conclude today with New Zealand represented by Myron Simpson in the men's omnium and Lauren Ellis in the women's points race.

- NZPA