German men crack world record in team sprint qualifying, claim gold in final

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The German National Team of Rene Enders, Maximilian Levy and world kilo champion Stefan Nimke was the sensation of the UCI Track World Cup on Thursday at the first full day of competition in Cali, Colombia. The trio clocked a time of 42.914 in team sprint qualifying to set a new world record, pending ratification, which bettered the previous benchmark of 42.950 set by Great Britain in the 2008 Olympic Games.

The German National Team went on to claim the gold medal in the team sprint final, notching a time of 43.311 to beat compatriots Team Erdgas 2012 by 0.919 seconds. Venezuela topped France to claim the bronze medal.

The German women's national team of Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte duplicated the men's first place performance by qualifying fastest in 33.058 and then beating Ukraine in the final, 33.143 to 33.869. Russian earned the bronze medal ahead of the Netherlands.

In the men's team pursuit, the expected showdown between Australia and New Zealand in the gold medal round never came to fruition as the Australian team crashed on the first straight. Australia had qualified fastest, with a 4:02.739 to New Zealand's 4:04.612, but they were not awarded a re-start and New Zealand's Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate, Marc Ryan and Jesse Sergent claimed the gold medal. The bronze medal ride between Denmark and host nation Colombia was a nail biter, however, with Denmark narrowly edging Colombia for third place, 4:07.387 to 4:07.468.

The British trio of Laura Trott, Wendy Houvenaghel and Sarah Storey won the women's team pursuit gold medal ahead of New Zealand. Great Britain, which qualified second fastest to New Zealand, jumped out to an early lead, but New Zealand's Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis and Jaime Nielsen clawed their way back. Two laps from the finish, however, Nielsen was dropped and Great Britain pulled away for the victory.

The United States dominated Lithuania in the race for bronze, powering to a time of 3:22.090 to claim third by more than eight seconds.

In other competition on Thursday, Kelly Druyts (Belgium) won the women's scratch race ahead of Katarzyna Pawlowska (Poland) and Ahreum Na (Korea); Francois Pervis (France) won the 1km time trial in 1:00.075 over Simon Van Velthooven (New Zealand) and Filip Ditzel (Czech Republic) and Spain's Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur (Cespa­Euskadi) prevailed in the men's points race over Ingmar De Poortere (Belgium) and Edwin Avila (Colombia), who claimed the first medal for the host nation at this World Cup round.

After three of the six events in the men's omnium, Bryan Cocquard (France) holds a four-point lead over Recep Ünalan (Turkey) and a six-point advantage on Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia).

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