Saturday, 3 December 2011

Houvenaghel Adds Silver to Collection


Northern Ireland's Wendy Houvenaghel has added a World Cup silver medal in the women's individual pursuit to her gold from the team event in Columbia.

The Olympic silver medallist clocked a time of three minutes and 33.698 seconds as gold went to New Zealander Alison Shanks who finished in 3:28.994.

On Thursday, Houvenaghel teamed up with Sarah Storey and Laura Trott to win individual team pursuit gold.

Trott is currently in fifth place at the halfway point in the omnium.

The women's pursuit team are the only British representation in Cali, Colombia, which is hosting the second of the four World Cup meetings.

The squad made the perfect start when Paralympic gold medallist Storey, European champion Trott and Houvenaghel teamed up to comfortably beat New Zealand.

Houvenaghel, 37, won Olympic silver in Beijing behind team-mate Rebecca Romero, but the individual pursuit has since been withdrawn from the London 2012 programme.

In the omnium, which is a two-day event and will feature at next year's Olympics, Trott finished fifth on the flying lap, fourth in the points race and 11th in the elimination race to end the opening day in fifth place.

The event's final three disciplines - the individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial - take place on Saturday.

Canada's Tara Whitten currently tops the standings after winning each of the first three disciplines.