Canada's pursuit team earns silver at track cycling World Cup

Canada won the silver medal in the women's team pursuit at the UCI track cycling World Cup in Cambridge, New Zealand on Saturday.
 
The team, represented by Jasmin Glaesser, Kirsti Lay, Stephanie Roorda and Annie Foreman-Mackey, easily won its first-round dual against the U.S., taking the showdown by six seconds to advance to the ultimate race.

Australia took the early lead, but not far behind followed the Canadians, who shuffled their roster by replacing Roorda and Foreman-Mackay with Laura Brown and Allison Beveridge. At the second split, Canada had come back to lead with a slight margin. However the Australians, the reigning world champions in the event, bounced back and took control of the race in the last two kilometres to take gold.
 
The dual was extremely tight between the two rivals. Australia won with a time of four minutes, 18.213 seconds, while Canadians crossed the finish line at 4:18.267, just 0.054 behind.
 
Canada remains the UCI World Cup leaders in the women team pursuit entering the last World Cup slated for Jan. 15-17 in Hong Kong.
 
Allison Beveridge, who raced the gold medal round in the Women Team Pursuit, was also in action in the women's omnium. She finished third in the scratch race, fourth in the individual pursuit, and fifth in the elimination race.

At the halfway mark of the six-race event, Beveridge is sitting fourth in the overall standings. Remi Pelletier-Roy is in 16th place of the men's omnium after three races.
 
In the sprint events, Kate O'Brien finished 13th place, immediately followed by teammate Monique Sullivan in 14th.

Notably for O'Brien, the result is quite remarkable as this race was only her second World Cup race in the individual sprint, improving her result from 25th in Cali to 13th in New Zealand.

The former bobsledder posted a personal best of 11.025 in the 200-metre qualifiers, lowering her best mark by 0.002 previously set at the Pan Am Games in Toronto. This was her World Cup debut in the first round, facing an opponent.
 
The men raced the keirin, with Hugo Barrette taking 13th place.