Canada's Whitten wins World Cup omnium event

Canada's Tara Whitten won a gold medal in the women's omnium event at a track cycling World Cup competition Sunday in Beijing.

It was the Edmonton native's third medal in as many events and first career World Cup victory in an individual discipline.

Whitten, the world champion in the new Olympic event, has a significant lead of 12 points in the UCI World Cup overall standings with only one more event to go this season, virtually guaranteeing her the title.

"This is pretty exciting for me," said Whitten. "This is my last World Cup prior to the worlds, so it is great to leave the 2011 World Cup on a high note."

Whitten has won medals in the omnium events at each of the three World Cup stops, grabbing one gold and two silvers.

"It's really nice for my confidence to know that I can consistently be on the podium in the omnium, every race I enter," she said. "It's a lot of events (six races) and anything can happen, but I am really happy that it came together three times this season."

Whitten held the lead entering Day 2 and went on to win the individual pursuit, then finished 10th in the scratch race and sixth in the time trial race to finish her omnium with 24 points. That gave her a huge 13-point lead over the silver medallist, Kristen Wild of the Netherlands.

Whitten will not compete at the next World Cup in Manchester. She's taking a break from the Tour to prepare for the 2011 world championships where she will defend her title in the women's omnium and points race.

"I am going to skip Manchester to have the chance to do some good training in preparations to the world championships," added Whitten. "Every year, I learn a bit better on what kind of training I need to be in peak form, and I think I can put in practice this year what I've learned so far. I'll have two strong months of training prior to the worlds, so I am excited to have that opportunity."