Kiwi sprint trio on top
The New Zealand men’s team sprint trio have produced a steady early season performance to win the opening night of the UCI Oceania Championships in Cambridge yesterday.
The trio of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Eddie Dawkins broke the New Zealand new all comers record with a time of 42.859 - only 03.seconds off their best set at the Rio Olympics.
The New Zealand elite team are taking on the best from across the Tasman in an event that offers important qualifying points for next year’s world championships.
After Webster started off in the morning heat, the Kiwi team sprint reverted to their proven formula in the final with Mitchell giving them a cracking start on the way to a superb early-season result.
‘‘That’s in our top five times ever so to achieve that so early in the season is pretty exciting for us,’’ said Dawkins.
‘We have got a busy schedule. We are on the plane on Saturday for our third World Cup in Canada and then we prepare for the world championships which are only a couple of weeks before the Commonwealth Games.’’
Webster rejoined the team after his stint racing in Japan, moving to starter with his team mates, as they clocked a competitive 43.132 seconds in the qualifying heat of the 750m team sprint at the Avantidrome.
It was the first time the trio had competed since their world championship victory earlier in the year.
‘‘It’s a privilege to race at home in front of friends and family and to be able to do it in our rainbow jerseys is really special. Today’s result is a great confidence boost for us knowing what is ahead of us,’’ said Mitchell.
The fans were treated to a stunning effort from the Australian team pursuit quartet of world champions Kelland O’Brien and Nicholas Yallouris, individual pursuit world champion Jordan Kerby and threetime world champion Leigh Howard.
With massive competition for a spot in the team pursuit for Gold Coast, they were keen to make a statement in what is their Commonwealth Games trial, with their time of 3:52.421 among the top-10 fastest times in history.
To further factor into their performance was the time taken to overtake the Kiwi team, and a mix-up when two riders were caught up, forcing Kerby to overcome a 10m gap to his teammates on the penultimate lap.
Earlier Olympians Morton and McCulloch impressed in winning the women’s team sprint in 32.755 after setting an All Comers record in qualifying, bettering the time of the world champion Chinese at the Cambridge World Cup in 2015.
The New Zealand women’s team pursuit produced and excellent performance to clock 4:21.829, overtaking Australia in the process, to win the 4000m final.
The quartet of Bryony Botha, Rushlee Buchanan, Racquel Sheath and Michaela Drummond, coming in for Kirstie James in the final, were down early but had one second up at the halfway, three seconds ahead at 3000m and caught the Australian in the finishing straight.
‘‘We have really only got together last week and this is probably our first serious hit-out to produce a strong time like that at this stage of the season is encouraging,’’ said Buchanan.
The competition continues until Thursday.