Australian quartet dominant in men's team pursuit

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In spite of a narrow lead after the first lap of the team pursuit final, The Netherlands were no match for Australia's men's team pursuit squad at the final Track World Cup round in Beijing on Saturday.

After finishing three seconds ahead of the Dutch in the qualifying round, Luke Durbridge, Michael Hepburn, Leigh Howard and Travis Meyer lined up for the final and caught their opponents 3000m into the race, eventually fininishing in a time of 4:01.226.

As final results fell the same way as the qualifiers, New Zealand saw off the Ukranian combination to claim the bronze medal. An all english speaking podium was avoided by Austria's Werner Riebenbauer, who held off the USA's Cody O'Reilly for third spot.

Miao Zhang (China) picked up where his female compatriots had left off in the sprint events on the first day's competition as he claimed a half second victory in the men's kilo. Germany's Joachim Eilers was the only rider to join Zhang with a sub 1:03 time, but it was not enough to topple the home rider. Poland's Kamil Kuczynski took bronze.

In the men's Keirin final, Azizulhasni Awang outwitted the Australian riders Jason Niblett (Australian National Team) and Daniel Ellis (Jayco). It was a brilliant showing by Malaysian riders, with Awang winning a final that also included Josiah Ng.

Canada's Zach Bell took a well deserved victory over Hayden Roulston in the men's scratch race. It was the Canadian's second gold medal of the World Cup after a dominant display in the points race 24-hours earlier.

After the dominance of China's women on day one, Dutchwoman Willy Kanis restored some pride for the visiting riders with victory in the 500m time trial. The only woman to record a time below 34 seconds, Kanis relegated Jinjie Gong (China) and Anna Meares to the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

However, despite Kanis' sterling effort, the Chinese sprint stars showed their strength once more as Gong combined with Junhong Lin to claim the women's team sprint. They finished almost a second faster than Kanis and Yvonne Hijgenaar, which Kanis adding silver to her collection for the evening. Anna Mears combined with Emily Rosemond to seal bronze for Australia.

In the women's points race, Australia's Megan Dunn scored regularly to record a two point win over Elena Tchalykh (Azerbaijan). Winner of the points race at the first two rounds of this year's World Cup track series, Giorgia Bronzini (Italy), finished in third place.