American Taylor Phinney clocked the fastest time in qualifying for the men’s individual pursuit Thursday to set up a gold duel with Australian Jack Bobridge here at the world track cycling championships.

Phinney fulfilled predictions of topping qualifying in an impressive time of 4min 15.160sec over 16 laps of the 250 metre track.

In his heat against New Zealand’s Jesse Sergent, Bobridge stepped up to the plate in similar style, clocking a new personal best of 4:17.419 to book his final spot.

Kiwi hope Sergent, who recently clocked a 4:16 at the national championships, disappointed, his time of 4:21.253 leaving him in fifth place and out of medals contention.

Belgian Dominique Cornu set the third fastest time of 4:19.197 and will meet Volodymyr Dyudya of Ukraine, who timed 4:19.786, in the bronze medal match.

If successful later Thursday Phinney would succeed Britain’s Bradley Wiggins, who is not competing here, and become the first American world individual pursuit champion since Mike McCarthy in 1992.