New Zealand's world champion cyclist Alison Shanks topped qualifiers in the individual pursuit on the opening day of heats at the World Cup meet in Beijing today.
Shanks cruised through qualifying in a slick three minutes 34.558 seconds, which was more than 5sec quicker than second qualifier Vilija Sereikaite of Lithuania, who will take on Shanks in the gold medal ride overnight.
The world champion started conservatively but produced a withering 1min 09sec for the second kilometre and was able to take the foot off the pedal in an impressive effort.
The New Zealand team sprint trio of Eddie Dawkins (Invercargill), Adam Stewart (Christchurch) and Sam Webster (Auckland) were just pipped out of the medal round.
They clocked 45.104sec for the 750m qualifying, more than half a second under their New Zealand record set at the Oceania Championships in Invercargill last November.
The trio were 2/100ths of a second behind Russia who claimed the final spot and will ride against France for the bronze medal, while top qualifiers China (44.192s) will take on Australia (44.524) in the gold medal ride.
Southland's Tom Scully was impressive in winning his heat of the men's points race over 15km.
The talented young rider won two of the five sprints and was among the 10 riders to put a lap on the field, finished top on 30 points.
