Waikato rider Peter Latham has won gold on the penultimate night of finals at the UJCI World Cup in Beijing. Latham took out the men's 4000m individual pursuit over Australian Mitchell Mulqueen to highlight the New Zealand performances at the Beijing Velodrome, the venue for cycling at the 2008 Olympics.
Latham, who turned 28 last week, topped qualifiers in 4:26.100. He had to show all his experience to win the final against the Australian, who started strongly to open a two-second lead after 1000m. Mulqueen was still ahead at the three-quarter mark but Latham's experience and conditioning came to the fore with a superb final 1000m in 1:06 to earn victory in 4:25.964.
Olympic hopeful Joanne Kiesanowski is in a share of second place after the first day of the women's omnium. The Christchurch professional was fourth in the 200m flying lap in 14.826, a fraction outside her best, but placed only 13th in the points race. Kiesanowski bounced back with a brilliant ride to finish second in the elimination race pipped in the final sprint by Russian Evgenia Romanyuta, the former world junior champion and current European points race champion.
Romanyuta leads overall after three rounds on 11 points with Kiesanowski in a share of second place with China's Mei Hsiao on 19 points, with the individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial to conclude the contest tonight. In other racing Eddie Dawkins (Southland) finished 10th in the men's keirin, after qualifying when he won his repechage.
Fellow Southland sprinter Natasha Hansen qualified eighth fastest in the women's sprint in 11.397, a fraction outside her Oceania record. She lost to Cuba's Lisandra Ridriguez in the round of eight and to China's Jinjie Gong in the consolation quarter-final. Otago's Katie Schofield clocked a personal best 11.551 in qualifying but was 1/100th of a second off qualifying for the elimination rounds.
Finals results:
Men 4000m individual pursuit, gold medal: Peter Latham (NZL) 4:25.964, 1; Mitchell Mulqueen (AUS) 4:26.267, 2; Bronze medal: Kevin Labeque (FRA) 4:28.519, 3; Valery Kaykov (RUS) 4:29.328, 4.