Meares, Morton in hunt for track gold

Australian stars Anna Meares and Steph Morton will meet in the quarter-finals of the women's sprint at the track world championships in London.

Australia's impressive sprint depth will be on display as cycling great Anna Meares and rising star Steph Morton clash with gold on their minds at the track world championships in London.

Australia will be seeking a gold rush on Sunday, with Annette Edmondson's title defence in the omnium also going on the line.

Edmondson sits seventh at the halfway point of competition having racked up 78 points by finishing eighth in the scratch, 11th in the pursuit and finishing the day with fifth in the elimination.

Great Britain's Laura Trott and the US's Sarah Hammer have a share of top spot with 112 points, with the 500m time trial, flying lap and points race to come on Sunday (Monday AEDT).

Meares and Morton will meet in the quarter-finals on the final day of competition in a rematch of the 2014 Commonwealth Games final, in which Morton famously edged her more decorated teammate.

And it was the younger of the pair who put in the more explosive rides on day four of the track cycling meet on Saturday.

The 25-year-old Morton produced the fastest flying lap - a 10.760 second dash which set the tone for the day.

In addition to her Commonwealth success, Morton also has Paralympic gold as the pilot when riding with Felicity Johnson in the tandem 1km time trial from London 2012.

But world championship medals have proven elusive, with fourth in the sprint last year in Paris and fourth in the team sprint two years ago in Minsk Morton's best results from three appearances.

She set about changing that on Saturday, backing up her scorching flying lap time with a comfortable win over Mexico's Daniela Gaxiola in the round of 16, while Meares powered past China's Jinjie Gong.

Highlighting the strength of Australia's sprint queens, Kaarle McCulloch also reached the round of 16 but was ousted by Canada's Kate O'Brien.

Morton exacted some revenge by toppling O'Brien in the next round to seal her quarter-final place.

Meares, however, went the harder route - losing her round of eight race to Germany's Kristina Vogel, who also beat the 11-time world champion to keirin gold this week.

But Meares bounced back with a crucial win in the repechage round to book a quarter-final against Morton.


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Source: AAP



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