New Zealand’s rising downhill stars Tyler Waite and Indy Deavoll have upstaged more experienced riders to be crowned the 2025 downhill champions at Coronet Peak, Queenstown today.
In men’s competition Waite, who has won three rounds of the Oceania MTB Continental Series in the junior category continued his outstanding 2025. The Hawkes Bay rider, who will ride on the world stage for the crack Yeti Fox Factory gravity team this year, clocked 2:47.82 for the 1.8km course.
Local star on the rise, Rory Meek was second just 0.2s behind Waite with Queenstown’s Malik Boatwright three seconds back.
It was a long wait in the hotseat for Waite as he waited for the elite category riders to finish. Luke Meier-Smith (Australia) was the fastest in 2mins 51secs, which meant Waite was crowned the men’s Oceania downhill champion for 2025 as the fastest rider overall with his fellow junior riders Meek and Boatwright filling the top three spots on the podium.
“Pretty good! All the practice was wet and then the sun came out for the race run, so it was nice and dry. I nailed it and didn’t have any mistakes, so it’s pretty good,” said Waite.
It was a similar situation in the women’s competition with Indy Deavoll, from Queenstown, who is the Continental Series leader in the junior category. Like Waite, she rode 3mins 12.02secs which was the fastest time over all grades, to win the elite women’s downhill title, while still in the under 19 category.
Fellow Queenstown rider and Cube Factory professional, Jess Blewitt, the four-time New Zealand champion, rode the second fastest women’s time of 3mins 15.39secs with another under 19 Bellah Birchall from Rotorua third fastest.
Earlier Anton Cooper and Sammie Maxwell claimed the XCO short track honours.
Cooper, who had his championship race thwarted with a flat, timed his run to perfection to claim the elite men’s title from yesterday’s champion Sam Fox from Australia and Rotorua’s Sam Shaw.
“After yesterday’s issues I would have been pretty bummed not to walk away with one title,” said Cooper, who now joins his Lapierre Racing Unity professional team for the UCI MTB World Cup which begins in Brazil.
“I wanted to take a different approach today and spent most of the race at fourth to sixth wheel. I knew I had to move forward on the last couple of laps and made a big attack on the last climb.”
Meanwhile it was a successful double for the Decathlon Ford professional Maxwell who streeting the opposition to take the women’s honours ahead of Australia’s Zoe Cuthbert and Christchurch’s Mary Gray.
“It was cold here today so I had lots of layers on. It was a pretty brutal track again. This mountain bike place is really hard and steep and fun.”
Results:
Downhill (all NZL unless stated):
Female, U15: Tilly Salter Quinn 3:45.16, 1; Paige Boomsma at 13.02, 2; Nadia Everett at 53.29, 3.
U17: Addison Rutherfurd 3:22.95, 1; Lucy Jenkins-Jablonski at 8:09, 2; Libby Excell at 18.06, 3.
U19: Indy Deavoll 3:12.02, 1; Bellah Birchall at 5.30, 2; Eliana Hulsebosch at 6.89, 3.
Elite: Jess Blewitt 3:15.39, 1; Kalani Muirhead at 7.43, 2.
Male, U15: Jack Coulson 3:08.38, 1; Angelo Decadi at 1.88s, 2; Kobie Madsen at 2.63, 3.
U17: Lewis Laird 2:52.90, 1; Camden Rutherfurd at 3.40, 2; Cole Hulsebosch at 7.41s, 3.
U19: Tyler Waite 2:47.82, 1; Rory Meek at 0.25s, 2; Malik Boatwright at 3.03, 3.
Elite: Luke Meier-Smith (AUS) 2:51.00, 1; James Macdermid at 0.97s, 2; George Brannigan at 0.98s, 3.
XCO Short Track: Elite Men: Anton Cooper (NZL) 1, Sam Fox (AUS) 2, Sam Shaw (NZL) 3.
Female: Sammie Maxwell (NZL) 1, Zoe Cuthbert (AUS) 2, Mary Gray (NZL) 3.