Collinelli wins pursuit gold
Italy's Andrea Collinelli powered to a clear win over Philippe Ermenault of France on Thursday to grab the gold in the individual pursuit cycling race.

The 27-year-old Italian, who twice broke the world record on Wednesday, fell slightly behind the Frenchman in the opening laps of the 4,000-meter race in which the riders start on opposite sides of a 250-meter track.

But he soon built up a time advantage and for much of the race looked set to better the record of four minutes 19.153 seconds he set in Wednesday's quarter-finals.

Tiring in the final kilometer, Collinelli completed the course in 4:20.893--0.01 second ahead of the three-year-old world mark he broke on Wednesday. Ermenault finished in 4:22.714.

Collinelli, silver medalist in last year's world championships, then performed a quick victory lap wrapped in the Italian flag.

The bronze, which was decided earlier, was won by Australia's Bradley McGee. The other losing semifinalist was Alexei Markov of Russia.

This story written by Reuters correspondents