Sprinter keeps family tradition riding high
Acouple of decades since putting a halt on her mum’s mountain biking world championship dreams, Ellesse Andrews is set to follow in her father’s track cycling slipstream at next year’s Olympic Games.
The Christchurch-born, now Cambridge-based, 20-year-old was lastweek named as part of the 15-strong Kiwi track cycling contingent for Tokyo 2021, where she will carry on a strong family pedigree on the bike.
Andrews’ father, Jon Andrews, claimed twin bronze medals (time trial and sprint) at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in 1990, before two fourth-placed finishes in Victoria, Canada, four years later, either side of his appearance at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, where he was seventh in the 1km time trial and ninth in the sprint.
A few years later, Angela MoteAndrews, an international mountain biker, was preparing for amaiden world championships appearance, only for those plans to be suddenly changed after finding out shewas pregnant with Ellesse.
‘‘I grew up with cycling pretty big in my life,’’ Andrews told Stuff soon after her Olympic selection at the ceremony in Cambridge lastweek.
‘‘I knew Dad had medalled at the Commonwealth Games and stuff, but it was more just fun and a family hobby. But they were the ones that got me into cycling when I was around 14 years old and I’m eternally grateful – look at where I amnow.’’
It could have been on the mountain bike like mum, having started there with a love of putting it in the highest gear and sprinting against dad, but once Andrews got a taste of the track there was no turning back.
‘‘I got on and I felt the adrenalin of going fast on the track, and competing against some other girls and getting some great results all lit a bit of a fire in me and was great for my
competitive nature,’’ she said.
Despite being part of the gold medal-winning team sprint at the 2016 junior world championships in Aigle, Switzerland, Andrews was mostly an endurance rider early on.
At the same event, she claimed bronze in the individual pursuit, then turned that into gold at the following year’s event in Montichiari, Italy, where she also took silver in the team pursuit.
That saw her claim both the Secondary School Sportswoman of the Year title at the Waikato Regional Sports Awards, then the Emerging Talent gong at the Halberg Awards, within a week of one another in February, 2018.
A couple of months later. Andrews was part of New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games team on the Gold Coast (sixth in the individual pursuit, 12th in the 500m time trial), then later that year took gold in the individual pursuit at the Oceania championships in Adelaide.
Then, wanting to explore another direction on the bike, she switched her focus back to sprinting. ‘‘I love going fast and doing short, sharp efforts,’’ Andrews said. ‘‘I had an opportunity to come into the sprint programme and I took it.’’
Indeed she did, with another gold coming in the keirin at last year’s Oceanias in Invercargill, before a fifth-placed finish in the discipline at this year’s world championships in Berlin, and now being the sole Kiwi female sprinter named for next year’s Olympics, where she’ll compete in the keirin as well as the sprint.
‘‘I’m absolutely honoured to be selected in this team to go race in Tokyo and do what I love for my country,’’ Andrews said. ‘‘I think I’ll be remembering this day forever.
‘‘The older I get the more special it kind of feels to be following a dream that my father once had. I think that’s something that’s quite emotional for me... with the chance that I have to show him what I can do, too.’’
‘‘The older I get the more special it kind of feels to be following a dream that my father once had.’’
Ellesse Andrews