Gold at last for Italy

The points race is a high-speed endurance event

Italy finally won its first cycling gold of the games, with Antonella Bellutti taking the women's points race on the last day of track racing.

The country - one of cycling's top nations - had been overshadowed by others until Bellutti's victory at the Dunc Gray velodrome on Thursday.

She triumphed ahead of Dutchwoman Leontien Zijlaard, who had taken the Italian's world record and gold in individual pursuit.

The games began badly for Italian cyclists when Atlanta pursuit gold medallist Andrea Collinelli and Mauro Trentini were thrown off the team after positive tests.

The rest of the team failed to reach the heights of previous years during the games, although they will start next week's road racing as one of the favourites.

Bellutii announed that this would be her final Olympic appearance.

Unlucky for some?

The race is a bunched event, with points awarded for sprints every 10 laps.

Belutti finished with 19 ppoints, three clear of Zijlaard with Russian bronze medallist Olga Slioussareva scoring 15.

Zijlaard, designated as number 13 for the race, refused to wear the number, and instead raced as number 14.

"I crashed three times with 13, and I said that if I have to have 13 here, I will not start," she said.

Rousseau king of keirin

France were left as kings of the track as they won a third gold at the velodrome.

Florian Rousseau won the first Olympic keirin race in history to help forget his disappointment in Wednesday's men's sprint.

Gary Neiwand took silver for Australia on a good night for the home nation at the velodrome.

They also won the Madison to take their first gold as the British team crashed. (See separate report)

Jens Fiedler of Germany won the bronze in the keirin - a race which involves motor-pacing by a powered bike to gain speeds of over 30mph.

When about two laps remain, the pacer leaves the track and cyclists sprint 500 meters to the finish.

The keirin is very popular in Japan, where it is a major betting event.

Punch

The fast and furious racing also featured a frustrated American rider punching a competitor.

Marty Nothstein, who won the match sprint on Wednesday, placed fifth in the Keirin.

He hit German rider Jan van Eijden as both came down the front straight out of medal contention.

He had faced a big disadvantage because the Germans had two riders in the Keirin finals.

The German strategy seemed to be to have Jan van Eijden block Nothstein and deny him a line to the front of the pack.

The tactic angered the American, and as Rousseau was crossing the finish line some 20 metres ahead, Nothstein sat up on his bike and punched van Eijden in the arm.