Track cycling star Anna Meares has set up a fascinating world championships battle with English arch-rival Victoria Pendleton as the London Olympics fast approach.

Meares again beat Pendleton in the sprint at the World Cup round in Manchester on the way to winning the event.

It was Meares' second gold medal of the Cup round, after she combined with Kaarle McCulloch to win the team sprint. Meares and McCulloch will defend their team sprint world title late next month in The Netherlands.

While Pendleton will compete for her fifth-straight sprint world title, Meares has again shown she can now match the British ace.

Meares qualified fastest for the sprint in Manchester with a scorching flying 200m time of 11.001 seconds - her second-best performance for that ride.

After beating Pendleton two heats to nil in the semi-finals, she beat another rival, China's Shuang Guo, 2-1 in the gold medal ride-off. Pendleton took the bronze medal.

Cyclingnews quoted Meares as saying: "Things have gone so well.

"I put together some really good racing ... I made a couple of mistakes as well but I was lucky enough to come away with the win."

Meares beat Guo in an eventful sprint semi-final at the Beijing Olympics, before Pendleton smashed her 2-0 for the gold medal.

Since then Meares has closed the gap steadily on Pendleton and also beat her in the gold medal ride-off for the sprint last December at the Melbourne World Cup track round.

While Meares' credentials are impeccable for the 500m time trial and team sprint, until the last few months Pendleton has held a clear edge in the sprint and keirin.

Australia now has three gold medals at the Manchester round, with Rohan Dennis taking out the 4000m individual pursuit on day one.

Jason Niblett finished second in the men's keirin, despite being involved in a massive crash. British cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy was the only rider among the six finalists not to go down. Niblett and the other four riders then had to pick up their bikes and cross the line to gain vital World Cup points.

Also on day two, Australian Amy Cure won bronze in the scratch race behind Russian Federation winner Anastasiya Chulkova and American Jennie Reed.

Roger Vaughan
AAP