Fulton satisfied with worlds debut
Shaane Fulton was already thinking about next year as she flew back to New Zealand, having just competed at her first UCI junior track world championships.
The Waimea College student said it was an incredible learning curve competing at a major international event, the competition in Montichiari, Italy easily the biggest of her young track cycling career.
‘‘I’ve never experienced anything that massive before. I have never really been overseas, I had only been to Australia before hand. We flew in through LA and London and I was thinking ‘holy’, just travelling around the world to get to the world championships, I was pretty blown away,’’ she said.
The 16-year-old came away happy with her results too, which were highlighted by a sixth place finish in the women’s keirin final.
The event was won by French star Mathilde Gros.
Fulton was eliminated at the quarterfinal stage of the sprint, beaten by overall winner Gros in two races, and she clocked 35.823sec to finish seventh in the 500m time trial, which was also won by Gros in a world record time.
With temperatures hitting the mid-30s, Fulton said the heat tested the New Zealand riders early on, needing to wear ice vests in order to keep cool during warmups.
‘‘When we first got there and in training it was really hard. But my body and every- one else’s adapted to it more and by racing it was pretty bearable.’’
With one more year of eligibility, Fulton said she will be looking to improve at the world championships in 2018.
‘‘Before I went over to Italy I didn’t expect many placings in the top 10, that’s for sure, so to come back with three top 10s and one just outside of the top five, I was pretty happy with that,’’ Fulton said.
‘‘I’m definitely looking forward to next year though. I was on the plane home thinking about where I can improve and I just want to get back into training, but for now I just have to chill out.’’
Fulton’s next race will be the Oceania championships in Cambridge in November.