Newton picks up World Cup gold

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.