Elite level awaits young riders
Two of Manawatu’s gun junior world track cycling championship riders are bound for the elite ranks later this year.
Campbell Stewart and Michaela Drummond arrived home in Palmerston North on Thursday laden with medals after they were part of the New Zealand team that topped the medal standings in Aigle, Switzerland, last weekend.
Stewart won gold medals in the omnium and team pursuit, and silver in the madison, which takes his medal tally to five after the two golds he won in Kazakhstan last year.
Drummond won silver in the team pursuit and silver in the omnium, having won gold in the team pursuit last year.
Manawatu’s Emily Shearman, who has another year at school, was part of the silver-medalwinning team pursuit team and is now on a family holiday.
Stewart planned to have a break before starting to prepare for the junior world road cycling championships in Doha, Qatar in October, along with fellow Manawatu rider Robert Stannard.
The 18-year-old Stewart said his chances of riding at an elite World Cup later this year or at the start of next year are good, with development opportunities coming up, but said it depends when the world cups are.
Stewart went to a world cup in Hong Kong earlier this year and if he continues performing this way, he should be off to another soon.
Now Olympian Sam Webster won three world titles in 2009, but Stewart has won four golds in two years, as well as a silver medal.
‘‘It was pretty awesome to be able to come back and defend what I did last year, along with the world title and world record,’’ Stewart said.
The Kiwis set a world record in the team pursuit and Stewart said he and his team-mates Jared Gray, Tom Sexton, Connor Brown and Josh Scott hadn’t realised they could go that fast.
Then came the six-event omnium where Stewart defended his title from last year.
He was second overall going into the second day and had to come from behind in the 25km points race.
‘‘The 120 laps was one of the hardest of my life, purely because the whole time I needed to sprint. It felt like the whole bunch was against me. ‘‘I had to go pretty deep there.’’ He capped off the weekend with silver in the madison, riding with Southland’s Sexton.
Feilding’s Jesse Sergent gold in the team pursuit in 2005, silver in the team pursuit in 2006 and bronze in the individual pursuit in 2006.
Ashhurst rider Drummond, will have a small break before joining her road team Black Magic Women’s Cycling to compete in the South Island series.
But after that she is a good chance to go to a track world cup with the elite women.
It wouldn’t be the first for her, as she also went to the world cup in Hong Kong.
‘‘It was a really cool experience to race with the elites.
‘‘Now I’m done the junior worlds and it’s time to go up to the big game.’’
For Drummond, 18, this year’s world championships were different from her first time last year.
‘‘I went into it knowing what to expect. I knew our team was strong and I felt I was in the best I form I could possibly be in at the time.
‘‘I was in peak performance going into it. I delivered the best performance that I could.’’