Kiwi pursuiters to ride off for golden reward

A new national record has set the New Zealand men’s pursuit team up to chase gold at the UCI track cycling world championships in Berlin.

The Kiwi combination set the new mark in the first round of the opening day’s competition against third-seeded France to advance to the gold medal clash on day two. They will take on Denmark, who set a world record in qualifying.

Also in the mix for medals on day two will be the New Zealand women’s team pursuit, who will take on top seeds USA in the first round, after qualifying fourthfastest.

The men’s team sprint qualified sixth fastest to secure qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, but they missed out on a chance for the medals after being pipped by France in their first-round clash.

The women’s team missed out on qualifying for the first round, finishing 10th in the qualification.

The men’s team pursuit of Campbell Stewart, Aaron Gate, Regan Gough, Jordan Kerby were second fastest in qualifying in 3min 48.742sec, only half a second outside their national record set at the Brisbane World Cup just before Christmas.

They were pipped for top spot by a world record from Denmark, who clocked 3:46.579 to be 1.5sec under the previous record set by Australia at last year’s world championships.

The same Kiwi quartet returned for their first round clash against third-ranked France, with the winner earning a place in the gold medal final.

New Zealand clocked 3:47.501, which was 0.7sec inside their New Zealand record, to stave off the French.

Denmark saw off Italy to advance to the gold medal rideoff.