11 Oct 2010

Gold on cycling track for New Zealand's Shanks

7:59 am on 11 October 2010

The New Zealand cyclists have given New Zealand more medals at the Delhi Commonwealth Games with Alison Shanks winning New Zealand's first gold in the women's individual pursuit and the men's sprint team winning silver.

The 2009 world champion Shanks was a favourite in Delhi and lived up to the hype winning the gold medal race in three minutes 30.875 seconds, narrowly missing out on a Games record.

Shanks' victory makes up for several recent disappointments after she finished fourth at the Beijing Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The men's sprint team of Eddie Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell were then defeated by Australia in the team sprint final after Webster suffered a high speed crash near the end of the race.