Ellis shines in points race

Lauren Ellis went close to grabbing a medal for New Zealand in the omnium at the velodrome today.

Ellis, 27, began the day in eighth place. She was 11^th in the 500m in 36.427s, and 14^th in the 250 metres flying start in 14.574s.

Going into the final event, the points race, she seemed to be out of the medal hunt, but she rode an excellent points race, finishing second equal on 73 points and dragged herself all the way up to fourth position overall.

In the end, Ellis totalled 189 points for her six events. The gold medal went to Laura Trott of Great Britain with 230 points, but Ellis wasn’t far behind Jolien d’Hoore of Belgium, the bronze medallist with 199 points.

There were hopes either Eddie Dawkins or Sam Webster might come through in the keirin but things did not fall the New Zealanders’ way today.

Dawkins found himself boxed in his first round and finished up fourth. He went into the repechage where, needing to win the race, he came third.

Webster rode well in the first round, taking the lead early and never being headed. In his second round he ran into problems on the last lap and trailed the field by some distance. In the race for positions 7 to 12, he was a good winner.