Manning wins England pursuit sweep

MELBOURNE, Mar 16 (Reuters) Paul Manning led an England medal sweep in the individual 4000m pursuit at the Commonwealth Games today.

The 21-year-old got the better of team mate Rob Hayles in the final, winning in a time of four minutes 23.799 seconds to clinch his first Commonwealth title.

''The way we have all been riding we knew that a 1-2-3 was on the cards,'' said Manning, who partnered Hayles in their triumphant team pursuit bid at the world championships in Los Angeles last year.

''We've all ridden brilliantly and it augurs well for the team pursuit. The team's in an excellent frame of mind.'' He beat Hayles by almost five seconds as the pre-race favourite wilted in the closing laps to clock a time of 4:28.616 second.

Manning had clocked the fastest time in qualifying earlier in the evening. Steve Cummings completed England's clean sweep of the medals when he clocked 4:24.767 to win the bronze race-off against New Zealander Jason Allen.

REUTERS PDS PM1746