It's Millar Time

David Millar's first competitive pursuit ended with a national title as he beat Paul Manning in the 4,000 metres final at the Manchester Velodrome.

Manning, the defending champion, had qualified fastest by just over half a second in the morning session, but Millar - who raised his gear two inches to 106 for the final - led from the third lap and pulled clear over the final kilometre to come home in 4min 22.322 sec, an improvement of one and a half seconds from the morning.

Millar had been hoping to go under 4-20 but found the difference in gear size just too much. "It was a little bit too big," he said, "but I'm well chuffed - I wasn't coming here to be national champion."

Manning finished in 4-25.190 while Chris Newton beat Ed Clancy for the bronze medal.

Victoria Pendleton closed a 50-metre gap to leaders Lizzie Armitstead and Laura Bissell over the last two laps to retain the women's 15km scratch title.

Chris Hoy set a championship record of 10.233 sec in the 200 metres qualifying round of the sprint and won through two rounds to earn a match against Craig MacLean, the holder, in the semi-finals tomorrow. Ross Edgar and Matt Crampton also went through to the last four in one of the best sprint competitions for some time.

For more coverage: www.velodrome.org.uk/nats.html