Meares sensational in sprint as Sir Chris claims turbo boosted keirin

Meares began her sprint assault by becoming the first Australian woman to clock a sub-eleven second barrier for the flying 200m qualifying round. The time of 10.985seconds set a new Australian and All Comers record. Meares progressed through the early rounds an in the semi final defeated Germany's Kristina Vogel in straight heats.

Pendleton, a five time sprint world champion, had an even easier run after China's Guo Shuang crashed in their first heat sustaining a suspected broken collar bone. She was taken to hospital for x-rays putting Pendleton straight through to the final against Meares and leaving Vogel with the bronze medal in a walk-over.

In the first heat of the gold medal showdown Pendleton drew the front position and launched the sprint but a powerful surge of speed from Meares on the back straight saw the Australian swamp her rival on the final turn to take the win by two bike lengths.

With her proud parents Tony and Marilyn watching from the stands, Meares, 27, was the rider in front for the seond heat and made sure she stayed there holding off a last ditch effort from Pendleton to secure the gold medal in front of an adoring home crowd.

It is the first time Meares has beaten Pendleton in a head to head sprint match since the quarter finals of the sprint at the 2005 round of the World Cup in Sydney,

"Victoria has dominated this event in the last five or six years, and it's been a long time between sprints for a win over her," said Meares. "To be able to do it in front of a home crowd tonight is extra special.

"I don't think Vicky is quite at her best tonight and I was expecting anything from her, (because) a world champion is scarier when they are perhaps not at their best because they can really draw on those emotions and the attitude you need.

"For me honestly, it means that I can beat her and that is huge for me, I haven't had that feeling for (five) years," said Meares. "I know I have worked particularly hard, I know that she is going to work even harder but I know now I can do it and that gives me a whole different approach to every time I line up against her

"I wouldn't actually say it's a psychological edge over her, if anything it's just going to give her fuel to go home make sure it doesn't happen again, but it definitely gives me fuel to go home and make sure it continues to happen," laughed Meares.

Although far from using it as an excuse, Pendleton admitted that the crash of her Chinese rival in the semi final affected her performance in the final.

"I have never been in that situation before and it did unnerve me a bit," said Pendleton, 30, adding, "After that I was a little unsure about carrying on, (as) you always want to qualify for a final on merit not by default."

However despite the loss, Pendleton is satisfied with her progress towards the 2012 London Olympic Games.

"I am pleased with my form, you can't be fast all the time and you have to make choices about racing.

"I chose not to go to the Commonwealth Games in favour of the Europeans. I was happy with that decision but certainly had a few moments of regret when I was watching it on television.

"Anna is probably the most experienced rider on the scene, I mean she was well on her way to achieving great things before I even started," said Pendleton. "She was the first ride I came up against at the Commonwealth Games and she put me away pretty easily, and she's still here at the top of her game.

"I think that shows real class in an athlete, as I find it hard to perhaps find the motivation to continue for another year and I've only been doing it for half the time so I've got a lot of respect for people (like that) because it's not easy."

In the men's keirin, reigning Olympic and World Champion Sir Chris Hoy of Great Britain delivered a brilliant display of tactics and speed to win the gold medal.

At the back of the field with a lap and a half to go, Hoy, 34, fired up the turbos to overtake the field. Hoy scorched around the track, bringing home the win in one of the fastest final 200 metres in keirin history.

"I had to be a bit more flexible with my tactics as that final was the fastest ever keirin," said the Scotsman who won triple Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008. "I did a 10.0 (sec) for the last 200m and I think that's a few tenths quicker than anyone's ever done before.

"I just had to be patient, as if you panic and you go too soon, then you can get stuck on the outside and you have to slow down.

"So I just really hit it as hard as I could with just over a lap to go and by the time I hit the 200m line I was really flying."

Teun Mulder of the Netherlands was second and the bronze medal went to France's Mickael Bourgain. Australia's Scott Sunderland finished fifth.

In the men's omnium, New Zealand's Shane Archbold proved himself to be the iron-man of the competition, taking out the gold medal.

The omnium consists of six events held across two days - a flying lap, points race, elimination race, individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial. Riders are awarded points based on where they place in each event and the rider with the lowest total at the end claims the gold medal.

With consistency the key, Archbold placed in the top five in all six events, to finish on 24 points, well ahead of Canada's Zac Bell (31 points) who claimed the silver medal. Reigning World Champion Ed Clancyfrom Great Britain was third with 35 points.

"Obviously I needed to approach the competition aggressively coming up against a world champion, but all I wanted to do was produce personal bests in all of the timed events and I did that," said Archbold.

In the women's omnium, Australia's Melissa Hoskins (26 points) sits in sixth place at the completion of three of the six events.

The flying lap, points and elimination races were contested today and Spain's Leire Olabbaria Dorronsoro leads on 12 points, with Canada's reigning World Champion Tara Whitten (18 points) and Jarmila Machacova of the Czech Republic (21 points) in second and third places respectively.

The individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial to decide the medals will be raced on Saturday.

The Melbourne World Cup is the first round of the 2010-2011 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics series and will feature more than 300 cyclists from 41 nations in action in 12 events over three days of racing. For more details please visit the event websitewww.trackworldcup.com.au Results and official start lists are available at www.tissottiming.com.