BEIJING // The world champion Marianne Vos of the Netherlands has won the women's points race gold medal at the Laoshan velodrome on the fourth day of Olympic track cycling. Vos dominated the race and was the only rider to successfully lap the field. She finished with 30 points, ahead of Yoanka Gonzalez of Cuba with 18 and Leire Olaberria of Spain with 13. The low-scoring race was marred by a crash that took out Sarah Hammer of the USA, Satomi Wadami of Japan and Verena Jooss of Germany. In the points race, racers ride 100 laps of the track, taking part in sprints every 10th lap for points. Most important, however, is the bonus of 20 points they get for lapping the field. Later, Britain are expected to take its fifth gold medal in track cycling in the men's team pursuit. The team of Ed Clancy, Paul Manning, Geraint Thomas and individual pursuit gold medallist Bradley Wiggins set a world record time of three minutes, 55.205 seconds for the 4,000 metres in the first round. Britain will face Denmark in the final. Australia and New Zealand were racing against each other for the bronze. Today's programme will also feature the quarter-finals of the men's and women's sprint competitions. British riders were the favourites in both, having broken the respective Olympic records in qualifying.
*AP
