Kiwi Sprint Trio Impress in World Cup Opener

New Zealand’s young sprinters grabbed an impressive silver medal on the opening day of cycling’s UCI World Cup in Melbourne overnight.

The trio of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins qualified second fastest and were just pipped by the Beijing Olympic gold medallists, Great Britain in the gold medal ride-off.

The Melbourne World Cup has drawn a stellar entry with full strength teams from Great Britain, Australia, Canada, china and several other leading European nations in the first major international with qualifying points for the 2012 London Olympics.

It proved an impressive night for the New Zealand squad with Timaru’s Shane Archbold currently leading the omnium after three of the six events, the Auckland pair of Aaron Gate and Myron Simpson winning silver in the Madison and the women’s team pursuit picking up the bronze medal.

The kiwi sprint trio, who played second fiddle to the Australian combination in Delhi, produced a superb 44.278s qualifying time, second behind the Great Britain combination led by Beijing triple gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy. Their time was only 15/1000ths of a second outside their medal winning time at the Commonwealth Games. They were faster than both Olympic medallists Germany and Australia.

The British managed to go slightly faster in the final in 43.939 with New Zealand at 44.278 for the silver.

They were led by Invercargill’s Eddie Dawkins who recorded 13,457s for his final flying lap, the fastest of all last leg riders.

New Zealand’s Kaytee Boyd, Lauren Ellis and Jaime Nielsen qualified fourth fastest in the women’s team pursuit but dominated a full strength Canadian line-up in the bronze medal ride in a slick 3:23.477 with Australia winning the final over Germany.

Gate and Simpson again produced an excellent combination in the men’s Madison, but like last week’s Oceania Championships they could not match Australian’s Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard to stole a lap on the field. The kiwis again collected the most points in the 30km final with Netherlands third.

Archbold had a top ride to be fourth fastest in the flying 250m lap, fifth in the Points race after covering all of the key breaks and fourth in the elimination to move to the top of the points table.
He will compete in the 1km time trial individual pursuit and scratch race tonight.

Results, UCI World Cup, Melbourne, Day 1 finals:

Men’s Team Sprint, qualifying: Great Britain 43.939, 1; New Zealand (Ethan Mitchell, S Webster, Eddie Dawkins) 44.278, 2; Germany 44:301, 3; Australia 44.409, 4.

Gold medal ride: Great Britain 43.829, 1; New Zealand 44.339, 2; Australia 44.545, 3.

Women’s 3000m Team Pursuit qualifying: Australia 3:24.244, 1; Germany 3:24.813, 2; Canada 3:25.138, 3; New Zealand (Kaytee Boyd, Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen) 3:25.299, 4.

Gold medal ride: Australia 3:22.171, 1; Germany 3:23.166, 2. Bronze medal: New Zealand 3:23.477, 3; Canada 3:25.402, 4.

Madison, 40km final: Australia 10 points, 1; New Zealand (Aaron Gate, Myron Simpson) 14 points, one lap down, 2; Netherlands 10 points, one lap down, 3.

Women’s Team Sprint: New Zealand (Stephanie McKenzie, Henrietta Mitchell) 36.011, 12.