Cycling Southland's Jeremy Presbury has claimed a semifinal berth in the Men's Sprint of the fourth day of racing at the UCI Juniors Track World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Presbury recorded 10.674 in qualifying to comfortably qualify from the 41-strong field for the top 24. Zac Williams (8th) and Callum Saunders (20th) both also confirmed spots in the next round. Presbury was able to dispatch Artsiom Zaitsau in the ROund of 24 to set up a show down with the second overall qualifier Maximilian Dornbach.
The two locked horns, literally, with the German receiving a warning for pushing against his opponent. Once their 1/8 final was reset, Presbury controlled the later stages, leading out the final sprint and holding off the German by three quarters of a bike length on the line to claim an upset vistory and a quarter final berth.
Williams also won through to the quarters after defeating Columbian Juan David Gutierrez in the Round of 24 and German Jan May in the 1/8 final after his rival was relegated for entering the sprinters lane when the opponent was already there.
Presbury lined up against Russia's Aleksey Lysenko in the quarter-final who, ironically dead-heated with Presbury's time in qualifying. Presbury claimed first blood with a degree of comfort in the first ride and then closed down his opponent over the final metres of their second meeting to claim a photo victory to win though to the world's top four.