BEIJING, Jan 16, 2009 (AFP) – Great Britain’s Chris Newton won the Men’s
30km Points Race on the first day of the Beijing UCI Track Cycling World Cup
Classic series here on Friday.

It is the second gold medal of the series for the rider, who also won in
Manchester last November.

Newton won six of the race’s 12 sprints, and now sits top of the standings
on 24 points going into the final leg in Copenhagen next month.

It was a good night for the New Zealand team which picked up gold medals in
the Men’s Individual Pursuit through Jesse Sergent, and in the Women’s 3km
Individual Pursuit, where Alison Shanks edged standings leader Vilija
Sereikaite of Lithuania.

The win gives Sergent his first points on the series and boosts him to
fourth in the standings, although the silver medalist, Ukraine’s Vitaliy
Shchedov, has a comfortable overall lead on 28 points. Ireland’s David
O’Loughlin was delighted with third and he also claims his first points on the
series.

The Lithuania team finished the day with two medals after Simona
Krupeckaite clinched gold in her duel with Lyubov Shulika of Ukraine in the
Women’s Sprint. She beat her rival in both the first and second gold medal
heat, nullifying a decider. Shulika retains the standings lead on 30 points,
closely followed by Krupeckaite on 24.

The France team faced compatriots Cofidis in the gold medal final for the
Men’s Team sprint. Cofidis, with Mickael Bourgain, Kevin Sireau and Francois
Pervis beat France into second place, finishing in 44.861.

Germany were third after they beat China in front of partisan support at
the Laoshan velodrome. Cofidis leads the standings on 30 points, with only
Germany on 28, Team Toshiba on 22, and Japan with 19 positioned to catch them.

In the Women’s 10km Scratch, Russia’s Evgeniya Romanyuta won gold, ahead of
Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini, and Belinda Goss of Australia in third.

Romanyuta moves into second in the standings on 24 points behind Elizabeth
Armistead of Britain’s Team HPM (100 Percent Me), who won the gold in
Manchester and Melbourne.

The Beijing World Cup is the fourth round of the 2008-2009 UCI Track
Cycling World Cup series and features around 400 cyclists from 40 nations in
action in 17 events over three days of racing.