Some proven kiwi performers and some new faces enjoyed a promising opening day of the Oceania Track Cycling Championships in Brisbane.
With most of the endurance riders on duties for their professional road teams, the championships are an excellent opportunity for coaches to bring in some new faces and promote young riders from the pathway programme.
Opening day at the Anna Meares Velodrome at Chandler in Brisbane featured the team racing, with New Zealand combinations dominating men’s and women’s pursuit while the Paris Olympic women’s sprinters made their first appearance since the Olympic Games.
The women’s endurance squad, led by Olympians Bryony Botha and Emily Shearman, won the team pursuit. Joined by Samantha Donnelly, Pru Fowler and Rylee McMullen, the squad mixed their combinations. There clocked 4:18.844 to top qualifiers and lowered that to 4:15.226 in winning the final.
The men’s combination of Kyle Aitken, Commonwealth Games MTB medallist Ben Oliver, Marshall Erwood, Tom Sexton and Nic Kergozou were equally impressive in the men’s 4000m team pursuit.
They topped qualifying in 3:59.97s to be 1.2s clear of Australia, who turned the tables winning the final in 3:57.335, just over one second ahead of the kiwis.
Paris sprinter Ellesse Andrews, Olivia King and Shaane Fulton dominated the women’s team sprint, fastest in qualifying in 47.478s which was a new championship record, and lowed this by a further 0.1s in the next round.
They made it three championship records in a row, clipping a further 0.1s off to record 47.288 in winning the final with Australia a second back.
“That felt good. We haven’t ridden a team sprint since the Games and we haven’t ridden a team sprint in this combination for years either, so I think it was really cool to come out and test a new combination with Liv and Shaane and put a good performance down," said Andrews.
"I feel like it will be some really good racing out there. We saw five teams I think today in the team sprint, so I think there should be a good few girls entering the individual events."
A new, young combination of Jaxson Russell, Kaio Lart, Luke Blackwood and Louis Vuleta share the duties in the men’s team sprint, clocking 45.137 in finishing second in the final.
Others to prosper included Hornblow, who won the scratch race in a kiwi shut-out with Tokyo medallist Campbell Stewart, just finished a tough early-season race sting on the UCI World Tour, was runner-up and Southland’s Nick Kergozou third.
It proved a kiwi shutout in the women’s scratch race, won by McKenzie Milne from teammates Lucy Reeve and Donnelly.
The junior men’s sprint competition saw Alex Schuler prevail over fellow New Zealand rider Flynn Underwood in two straight rides in the final.
In Para competition, Siobhan Terry was second in the Women’s 10km Scratch and Ieuan Edwards fourth in the men C1-5 competition.
The competition continues until Saturday. Results: https://results.auscycling.org.au/Track/index.html