Henderson finished an impressive fifth in the points race at the world track cycling championships in England on Saturday (NZ time) and the performance guaranteed him a place in the New Zealand team for Beijing in August.
Henderson was prominent throughout the 40km, 160-lap race to finish only two points from a medal in Manchester. He was in third place for much of the middle part of the race.
Vasili Kiryienka, of Belarus, played a part in most of the sprints to claim the title with 24 points, one ahead of Frenchman Christophe Riblon, who won the final two sprints in a desperate attempt to lap the field.
Peter Schep, of the Netherlands, who won three sprints early on, was nearly dropped but recovered to finish third on 19 points, one ahead of Australian Cameron Meyer, with Henderson another point back in the tightly-fought race.
Henderson won two sprints, held every 10 laps, in the fifth and 10th sprints, a second placing and four fourths.
Henderson later teamed with Hayden Roulston to finish ninth in the Madison final.
Henderson and Roulston started strongly in the two-man event, where riders change positions with a hand-to-hand slinging action.
They were second in three of the first eight sprints but they could not match the specialist Madison teams in a gruelling 50km event over 200 laps.
The points race result gives the 2004 world scratch race and 2002 Commonwealth Games points race champion a chance to add an elusive Olympics medal to his impressive record on the international stage.
Henderson was fourth in the points race at the Athens Olympics in 2004, finishing agonisingly close to taking bronze.
He told the Otago Daily Times in an earlier interview that competing in Beijing was ‘‘everything, as far as a I'm concerned''.
‘‘This is pretty much the last chance for me at an Olympics. I'm not going to cut any corners.''
Fellow Dunedin rider Alison Shanks is also expected to be named in the New Zealand cycling squad for Beijing. - With NZPA
