The Great Britain Cycling Team got off to a strong start in the second round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup 2015/16 with one medal ride booked and the chance of two more to follow on day two.
A mix of youth and experience has travelled to Cambridge, New Zealand for the event – the first time the world cup has been held in the country.
In the early hours of Friday morning (GMT) in the Avantidrome, the men and women were in action in the team pursuit and team sprint qualifying.
The sprint trio of Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner will ride for bronze in Saturday morning’s final (GMT).
Good result this evening, some more Rio qualification points and a chance to improve to 3rd tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/tQOIQySWmP
— Callum Skinner (@CallumSkinner) December 4, 2015
They qualified fourth fastest in 43.848 and will race trade team, Team Jayco-Ais, made up of Australians Nathan Hart, Jacob Schmid and Matthew Glaetzer.
Jessica Varnish and Katy Marchant won’t ride again in the team sprint however, qualifying in eleventh place in 34.279.
In the team pursuit, Great Britain’s women are through to round one on world cup debut.
The team of Emily Kay, Abbie Dentus, Manon Lloyd and Emily Nelson qualified eighth fastest in 4:32.453, boosted by a powerful final kilometre of 1.05.804.
Super happy to have qualified for tomorrow's second round of TP with the girls @BritishCycling #bringiton pic.twitter.com/YDDeJf8iAd
— Manon Lloyd (@manonlloyd96) December 4, 2015
They’ll race against the clock in the early hours of Saturday morning (GMT) to try to secure a bronze medal ride.
The men’s team pursuit squad face similar challenge after qualifying in seventh place.
Chris Latham, Ollie Wood, Germain Burton and Mark Stewart finished in 4:04.128, dipping under 59 seconds in both kilometres two and three.