KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand track cycling pursuit team signalled their progression from pretenders to potential gold medal contenders at the Olympics in finishing fourth at the world championships at Manchester today.
The quartet of Westley Gough, Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan and Hayden Roulston clocked four minutes, 00.833 seconds and slashed five seconds off the national record in qualifying to establish their credentials.
The old mark was 4min 05.177sec set by Bewley, Gough, Ryan and Tim Gudsell at the Beijing World Cup round late last year.
In setting the new mark, they pushed Australia into fourth after qualifying.
But the Australians were a tick faster in the bronze medal ride-off, clocking 4min 00.89sec to the Kiwis' 4min 01.993sec.
The Australian four contained Graeme Brown and Bradley McGee who helped set a world record of 3min 56.610sec on the way to winning the gold medal at the Athens Olympics.
New Zealand team manager Craig Adair said the pursuit team were a work in progress.
"We have not peaked for this event - we are aiming to peak for the Olympics and I'll tell you now, we are gold medal potential in this event, no question," he told NZPA from Manchester.
"It was a great effort today and they have lot more to come - they can improve four seconds yet.
"Both times, they broke the previous record by close to five seconds, we have a very young team coming up and by no means have we finished yet.
"... we are the only team at this championships who have come up so much .. . and we've still got more to go.
"We would be considered very dangerous property at the moment."
At last year's world championships in Spain, Bewley, Gough, Peter Latham and Ryan also finished fourth, clocking 4min 06.591sec, losing to Denmark in the ride-off for bronze.
This time, New Zealand used the power of Hayden Roulston, who finished fourth in the individual pursuit earlier, to make their huge gains.
Gough and Bewley, the 2005 team pursuit junior world champions, led off in the one and two slots respectively to set the pace with Ryan solid in No 3.
But it was a double turn up front by Roulston in qualifying and the bronze medal ride-off that put New Zealand on the threshold of breaking the four-minute barrier.
"Roulston coming into the team at No 4 was critical and makes them a very solid unit.
"He did another double turn tonight, and without him, it would not have gone close to four minutes," Adair said.
The gold medal went to defending champions Britain who rewrote the world record with a time 3min 56.322sec in overwhelming Denmark, the fastest qualifiers.
Dunedin's Alison Shanks was seventh fastest in the 3000m women's individual pursuit after producing another personal best.
She clocked 3min 35.212sec which took off 1.2sec from her national record set at the recent national championships in Invercargill.
"Alison continues to improve every time she gets on the bike. It was a very solid performance from her and shows her potential is unlimited.
"It's important to remember that our team is not peaking specifically for these championships, unlike some of the nations, but rather taking the view that they are on a building process through to Beijing," Adair added.
The women's individual pursuit was won by Britain's Rebecca Romero who beat defending champion Sarah Hammer of the United States in the gold medal race.
Romero clocked 3min 30.501sec to trounce Hammer who could only manage 3min 37.006sec.
The bronze went to Australia's Katie Mactier in a time of 3min 32.347sec.
Dunedin's Greg Henderson, currently ranked fourth in world, is the only New Zealander in action tomorrow morning when he competes in the points race.
- NZPA
