New Zealand team excels in Beijing

New Zealand's team earned four gold medals at the UCI Track World Cup in Beijing, China, this past weekend, surpassing the expectations of Bike New Zealand's High Performance Manager Mark Elliott.

Alison Shankes and Jesse Sergent brought home gold medals in the women's and men's individual pursuits and Hayden Godfrey won the scratch race. The men's team pursuit team collected a silver while on the final day, the women's team pursuit clocked a gold-medal winning performance.

"Even though the world championships are 10 weeks away, it's a good indication that they're at the right fitness level, and they're still developing – they're going to go faster," said Elliott according to the Otago Daily Times.

"It's very exciting, that level of competition, and it's really going to set our track nationals in February on fire."

In addition to looking toward the world championships, Elliott said the team's performance was important as New Zealand geared up for the 2012 Olympic Games.

See Cyclingnews' full coverage of the Beijing Track World Cup.