Pursuit gold for Latham
01/14/2012 09:08:20 PM
New Zealand's Peter Latham won the men's 4000m pursuit final on the penultimate night of the UCI World Cup in Beijing on Saturday.
Latham headed Australian Mitchell Mulqueen at the Beijing Olympic Velodrome in a time of 4m 25.964s.
Latham, 28, rode 4m 26.1s in topping the qualifiers and showed his experience in not being drawn from his ride plan as Mulqueen went out to a two-second lead after 1000m. Mulqueen led through to the three-quarter mark but a superb final 1000m in 1min 6s from Latham saw him claim the win.
After the first day of the women's omnium, Olympic hopeful Joanne Kiesanowski has a share of second place. After finishing fourth in the 200m flying lap in 14.826s, she placed only 13th in the points race.
However, a superb effort to take second in the elimination race boosted her overall effort. She was pipped by former world junior champion and European points race champion Evgenia Romanyuta of Russia. The Russian leads after three rounds. The individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial will complete the event on Sunday.
Southland's Eddie Dawkins finished 10th in the men's keirin after qualifying by taking his repechage.