The Cycling New Zealand men’s team sprint combination overcame three races in the session in extreme heat to earn a bronze medal on the opening day of the UCI Track Cycling Junior Championships in Tel Aviv.
The trio of Liam Cavanagh (Tamahere), Luke Blackwood (Auckland) and Jaxson Russell (Cambridge) saved their best form until last to overcome the high-ranking Koreans to claim the bronze medal.
It proved a demanding opening day with high temperatures at the Sylvan Adams Velodrome, which is open to the elements on the sides of the complex. It is the first time in three years that New Zealand has competed after the covid pandemic affected the competition, with 42 nations competing in Israel.
The New Zealand team sprint qualified seventh fastest in 46.379 seconds to make it through in the top eight nations for the first round of match racing.
“The first ride was a bit dusty. We didn’t get a chance to train out of the gate and so the first start out of the gate was a bit rough,” said starter Liam Cavanagh. “We managed to pull through to get seventh to get us up against Italy who were pretty quick.”
Italy had qualified in 45.01s, second fastest behind Australia, to make for a daunting challenge, but they made a false start in the ride against New Zealand. The Italians chose to ride on before returning for the re-start.
“They probably drained themselves a bit and we went better and managed to get through to the bronze medal ride,” said Cavanagh with the kiwis managing 46.349 to beat their opponents by more than half a second.
New Zealand, drawn against Korea for the bronze medal ride, produced a stunning effort with a best of 45.838s to pip their opponents by 0.15s to claim the bronze.
Cavanagh made an excellent start of 18.381 to give them the edge and set up for Russell in second wheel and Blackwood to finish the job completing his third race of three laps in two hours.
“It was tough but knowing there was a medal on the line makes it all worth it. That’s what we have trained for and awesome to see the boys put it all together on the day,” he said.
Russell said it had been a challenging day but was proud they found top form when it counted.
“We finally managed to piece it all together in the final. It was a bit disappointing for the first one but we finally got it together in the end. It’s great to get a medal and no pressure on the rest of the week now,” said Russell.
The men’s team pursuit combination has the second chance of a medal for New Zealand when they ride off for bronze against Denmark tomorrow.
The quartet of Kyle Aitken, Edward Pawson, Lewis Johnston and Oliver Watson-Palmer qualified fifth fastest in 4:12.002 with Italy fastest in 4:01.640.
However the Italians did not finish their semifinal, promoting Australia into the gold medal ride tomorrow against the other winner, Germany.
In the bottom half of the qualifiers, New Zealand, with the introduction of Joel Douglas for fresh legs in the hot conditions, led to an improved time of 4:05.968 against Spain. It was the second fastest time overall, including the two losing semifinalists, to qualify for the medal ride.
This pits them against Denmark in tomorrow’s ride-off for the bronze medal.
Outstanding Canterbury rider Amelia Sykes got her programme off to a solid start to finish eighth in the women’s scratch race.
The multi-national champion made a solo sprint late in the race in an attempt to catch the three breakaway leaders, but was caught by the bunch in the final sprint to the line.
The second day of competition features the team pursuit medal ride, the men’s keirin and women’s team pursuit.