After battling to finish first and second in the omnium, Bryony Botha and Emily Shearman joined forced to provide a master-class in winning the two-rider madison final on the penultimate day of the National Track Championships at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome in Cambridge.
The elite pairing, preparing for the UCI Nations Cup competition in Hong Kong in two weeks, finished with 83 points from the 80-lap final, lapping the field twice and scoringpoints at will in a sublime performance. Botha and Shearman not only lapped the field twice, but won seven of the eight sprints.
The pairing of Georgia Simpson, Prue Fowler were second on 25 with the CMC team of Meg Baker and Elena Worrall third on 17.
The combination of Rebecca Petch, Shaane Fulton, Olivia King, also preparing for Hong Kong without star Ellesse Andrews, produced an excellent win in the women’s team sprint, clocking 47.339s, which was only 0.3s outside the national record but broke the New Zealand Championship record. It was led with a world-class 18.757s lead-out lap from Rebecca Petch,
The men’s elite omnium title went to rising Southland teenager, Marshall Erwood in an excellent battle of quality riding to edge out Baily O’Donnell and Nick Kergozou, who won the opening scratch race.
Kyle Aitken took out the tempo from Erwood, who then won the elimination to take a four point lead into the final points race from Kergozou with Hayden Strong and O’Donnell close behind.
Erwood won a closely fought points race, scoring points in seven of the 10 sprints, and won two of them to secure the title with 137 points. O’Donnell had two wins and second in the final sprint to finish second on 129 points with Kergozou only three points back in third.
The junior omnium was won by Counties Manukau rider Bernard Pawson in a tight battle, just six points ahead of Daniel Morton. The key was Pawson’s outstanding effort to be the only rider to gain 20 bonus points for lapping the field.
Meanwhile Caitlin Kelly edged out fellow national junior representative Jodie Blackwood by 0.1s to win the under-19 time trial in 36.188s.
The Championships finish on Thursday.