Aussies score at Melbourne World Cup

By Agence France Presse

Olympic silver medalist Anna Meares headlined a winning night for Australia with victory over her Chinese rival Guo Shuang in the women’s sprint at the Melbourne World Cup round on Thursday.

Meares beat Guo by two heats to nil in the best-of-three gold medal ride-off in one of three Australian victories on the opening night of the track World Cup.

World champion Cameron Meyer won the men’s points race and Australia’s Jayco professional squad claimed the team sprint.

Meares beat Guo in an eventful semi-final at Beijing last year, while the Chinese star beat her in the quarter-finals last month at the opening World Cup round in Manchester.

“I’m back in town. I just feel like I belong in this event again,” Meares said.

Meyer fought back from a lap down to win the 30km points race.

He was tied on points with Ioannis Tamouridis of Greece at the finish, but Meyer won because he was better-placed in the final sprint.

Daniel Ellis combined with Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland to claim the men’s team sprint for Jayco from Germany and Russia.

In other opening day events, New Zealander Jesse Sergent won the men’s four-kilometer individual pursuit from Australian Rohan Dennis and Russian Vitaliy Shchedov.

Britain’s Wendy Houvenaghel took out the women’s 3000m individual pursuit from New Zealand’s world champion Alison Shanks and Lesya Kalitovska of the Ukraine.

Russian Evgeniya Romanyuta won the women’s scratch race from Italian Giorgia Bronzini.