Cycling: Ulmer wins pursuit gold at World Cup

1.00pm

New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer moved up a gear in her preparations for the Athens Olympics and blitzed her opposition to win the women's individual pursuit at the track cycling World Cup in Aquascalientes, Mexico, today.

The Waikato-based rider was the fastest qualifier, ensuring her a place in the gold medal ride.

In an astonishing ride, she clocked 3 minutes 37.697 seconds to finish nearly four seconds ahead of Elena Tchalykh of Russia (3min 44.698sec) and more than 10 seconds ahead of Great Britain's Emma Davies who took the bronze medal.

Ulmer's time broke her own national record of 3min 38.939sec set in the qualifying rounds of the national championships in Auckland earlier this month.

With three more events to be contested at the World Cup, the New Zealand team also had collected two silver medals.

Greg Henderson claimed silver behind Colby Pearce of the United States in the scratch race, with Switzerland's Franco Marvulli taking the bronze medal.

Then the men's team pursuit of Jason Allen, Richard Bowker, Hayden Godfrey, and Tim Gudsell were in a thrilling final against France where the teams finished in 4min 18.406sec and 4min 17.972sec respectively. Third place went to Spain.

The Mexican event is being described as the biggest World Cup, with countries chasing points for the world championship qualifier for the August Olympics.

- NZPA