Tweet

Alison Shanks isn't getting too carried away with her record-breaking form at the Oceania track cycling championships in Invercargill.

Shanks produced a stunning 3min 28.475sec effort to claim the individual pursuit title on Tuesday, shattering the national residents' record. Her time was more than a second under her previous best, set in winning her world championship title in Poland in 2009.

The world record is held by the United States' Sarah Hammer who set a time of 3min 22.269sec in Mexico last year.

A day earlier, Shanks had combined with Lauren Ellis and Jaime Nielsen to smash the national 3000m team pursuit record in clocking 3min 19.759sec - just 0.019sec outside the world record set at altitude in Mexico by the United States.

Shanks says the performance is a good indication New Zealand women cyclists are on target leading into next week's World Cup in Colombia and on to the 2012 London Olympics.

"We are not peaking by any means. This shows we have good early season form and gives us real confidence looking ahead," Shanks said.

"I've spent more time on the road and more time in the gym in the build-up and it shows we are well on track."

In an all-New Zealand men's 4000m individual pursuit final, Jesse Sergent set a new national record by nearly half a second, clocking 4min 16.139sec ahead of Peter Latham's 4min 21.483sec.

Just a day earlier, Sergent had combined with Marc Ryan, Sam Bewley and Aaron Gate to win the men's 4000m team pursuit in an outstanding 3min 55.295sec.

He said the two results were an encouraging indication of form ahead of the London Olympics.

"We have had a very limited track build-up to this, so overall I think we are in excellent shape."