25/03/2011 - New Zealand has opened its medal account at the World Track Champs in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands with Fielding's Jesse Sergent and the Women's Team Pursuit comnbination of Ali Shanks, Jamie Nielsen and Kaytee Boyd all stading on the podium this morning.
Cycling Southland's Eddie Dawkins also featured strongly with team mate Sam Webster in the Men's Sprint. Both qualified for the first round - Dawkins in 17th place after riding a 10.391 and Webster in 12th following his 10.344. Dawkins pushed Australia's Scott Sunderland all the way, only missing by half a wheel while Webster lost narrowly to Japan's Tsubasa Kitatsuru.
But the story of the day was the silver medal for Sergent and the bronze for the Women's TP.
Sergent qualified second fastest laying down a 4'21.481 - 4 seconds slower than World record holder Jack Bobridge of Australia. In this morning's gold medal ride Bobridge roared out of the blocks to take an early advantage before Sergent slowly started eating into the lead, but it was too big a gap for Jesse to bridge and he had to be content with another World Championship silver medal, finishing 2.7 seconds down on Bobridge.
The Women's Team Pursuit was a close affair with just 0.7 seconds seperating New Zealand and top qualifiers Great Britain. The United States edged out the Kiwis which meant a ride-off for bronze against Australia.
The New Zealand trio trailed their neighbours after the first kilometre but took control over the second 1000 metres to claim bronze by over a third of a second.
Alison Shanks and Jamie Nielsen both back up tomorrow morning in the Individual Pursuit, along with Lauren Ellis while Cycling Southland's Tom Scully will make his first appearance at these championships in the Men's Points Race while Shane Archbold will be looking to continue his hot form from the World Cup circuit when the Men's Omnium starts in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Approximate race times (NZ time) for Saturday morning follow:
02:00 - Women's Individual Pursuit Qualifying (Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis, Jamie Nielsen)
02:55 - Men's Omnium Flying Lap (Shane Archbold)
04:00 - Men's Omnium Points Race (Shane Archbold)
07:15 - Men's Points Race Final (Tom Scully)
08:55 - Women's Individual Pursuit Finals
09:45 - Men's Omnium Elimination (Shane Archbold)
Follow results live online here
Link to live streaming video here