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The records for Cycling New Zealand’s female riders continued to tumble on the final day of the Track National Championships at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome in Cambridge today.
The women’s team sprint combination of Rebecca Petch, Olivia King and Ellesse Andrews broke the national record in their first ever three-person team sprint.
From 2021, female team sprint is over the same distance as the men with three riders over 750m, from the previous two riders over 500m.
The Waikato BOP combination clocked 48.451s this morning this morning to edge under the previous national record set at the championships last year of 48.475.
The time would have qualified the kiwi trio fifth fastest at last year’s UCI Track World Championships in France and only 0.09s from the third fastest in qualifying.
Leading the way was BMX national champion Rebecca Petch, who rocketed out of the blocks with a 19.01s opening lap which would have been second fastest of all riders at the 2021 world championships.
“It was a pleasing performance given it was not only their first time together, but their first ever three-lap team sprint,” said coach Fionn Cullinane. “It was good preparations for this trio for the upcoming Oceania Championships to see if we can go faster.”