(BEIJING, December 8) -- In Saturday's World Cup track cycling contest, title favorite Guerra Rodriguez of Cuba powered to a victory in the women's 500-meter time trial in 33.994 seconds, just 0.05 seconds away from the world record of 33.944 seconds.

Guerra was also the silver medalist at the Sydney leg of the World Cup one week ago, following world record holder Anna Meares of Austrialia. Meares did not partipicate in this event but did grab the women's sprint title on Friday to qualify for the Olympics. Unlike the 500-meter time trial, the women's sprint is one of the 10 Olympic track events at the 2007-2008 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics slated for December 7 to 9, 2007 in Beijing. By winning the sprint event, Meares qualifed for next year's Olympic Games in Beijing.

Simona Krupeckaite from Lithuania placed second in the time trial at 34.447 seconds, while Natallia Tsylinskaya from Belarus took third place at 34.595 seconds.