Hegg Sets Record in Pursuit Race at Cycling Trials

Steve Hegg of Dana Point, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist, set a track record Wednesday at the U.S. National Track Cycling Championships during qualifying rounds for the individual pursuit races.

All eight of the senior men’s qualifiers broke the track record of 5 minutes 5.87 seconds, which set in the 1977 Nationals held in this Seattle suburb. Hegg demolished the mark with a ride of 4:51.92.

Of the eight women who advanced to the quarterfinals, seven bettered the track record of 4:10.43 set in the 1977 Nationals by Connie Carpenter, the gold medalist in the women’s road race in the 1984 summer Olympics.

The top time was posted by Seattle native Rebecca Twigg Whitehead, the defending world champion in the pursuit.

She had a qualifying ride of 4:01.65, the same as Melinda Mayfield of Union Lake, Mich., but was two-thousandths of a second faster than Mayfield, the pursuit silver medalist in the recent Goodwill Games in Moscow.

The top 11 riders in the junior men’s (age 16 and 17) pursuit also topped the track record in their qualifying runs, but only the top eight advanced to the quarterfinals.