New Zealand open home Track World Cup with gold and two bronzes

The fourth round of the UCI Track World Cup began on Friday in Cambridge, New Zealand, and saw the home nation tasting success straight off the bat. New Zealand took a gold medal in the women's team pursuit and bronze in both the men's team pursuit and team sprint.

The rest of the day's events saw golds for Subway New Zealand Track Team in the women's team sprint, for Japan in the men's team sprint, and for Switzerland in the men's team pursuit.

The event kicked off with the women's team pursuit qualifying, where New Zealand laid down a statement of intent with a 1.615-second gap over neighbours Australia in second place. They then breezed through the first round before facing off against Australia in the gold medal matchup.

It was a close run thing early on in the final, though the New Zealand quartet of Kirstie James, Holly Edmondston, Rushlee Buchanan and Bryony Botha gradually pulled away to take gold by 1.755 seconds. Canada took bronze after beating the Subway New Zealand Track Team.

The men's team pursuit saw eventual gold medallists start out slow, trailing fastest qualifiers Australia by 2.121 seconds in qualifying. They then edged past New Zealand by less than two-tenths of a second in the first round, while Australia comprehensively dispatched Canada.

The final was a back-and-forth affair, with the lead switching every 1000 metres as another set of riders faced off. Ultimately it was the Swiss quartet of Robin Froidevaux, Lukas Rüegg, Stefan Bissegger and Claudio Imhof who clinched it, turning in a storming final 1000 metres that saw their 0.246-second deficit transform into a 2.053-second victory over Australia. New Zealand took bronze, beating Russia.

In the women's team sprint, Subway New Zealand Track Team again enjoyed the best start in qualifying, with the duo of Olivia Podmore and Natasha Hansen besting Poland by 0.018 seconds. After getting past Colombia in the first round, they drew Poland in the gold medal matchup, once again edging to victory by a mere 0.022 seconds. Gazprom-RusVelo took bronze after beating Australia. 

The day's final event was the men's team sprint, won by the Japanese trio of Kazuki Amagai, Yudai Nitta and Tomohiro Fukaya after a late surge against Poland. They qualified second, some 0.326 down on a storming New Zealand effort, and then made it past Australia in the first round with a big last lap effort.

New Zealand also made it through, beating Gazprom-RusVelo, but after their quick start to the day they were fourth-fastest, meaning it was a bronze medal matchup against Trinidad and Tobago for them. They duly won, taking their country's third medal of the meet. Later on, Japan took on Poland for gold, taking it at the line by 0.496 seconds.

Women's Team Pursuit

Women's Team Sprint

Men's Team Pursuit

Men's Team Sprint