National medals at the double for Aliya
HUDDERSFIELD cycle racer Mason Hollyman has enjoyed success in Italy.
The 17-year-old from Emley, who rides for the Bike Box Alan team, was invited to guest for a team in the Junior Giro di Basilicata, and won Stage Two of the event!
Hollyman was 17th out of 121 on general classification and ready to move up – he was also fifth in the Young Rider category.
Hollyman, who trains six times a week, had been looking forward to the hilly stages of the event.
He was second on one of the stages in the Mendips National and was eighth in the Monmouthshire GP.
In the Junior Tour of the Basque Country, in Spain, he finished 15th on general classification and fifth in the first-year Junior category, out of 198 riders.
At the Scarborough National, he was fourth, and Becky as she really pushes me.
“We’re always together and we race a lot. It’s usually pretty close but never as close as that!”
Of her School Games experience she added: “It’s been amazing. This gold means loads to me but the whole experience has been great.
“I’ve seen a couple of other sports as well and the Opening Ceremony – it’s been amazing.”
The School Games are an integrated multi-sport event for the UK’s most talented school-age athletes, with around 1,600 competing across 12 sports, seven of which included disability disciplines.
Previous competitors include Paralympic champions Hannah Cockroft, Ellie Simmonds and Jonnie Peacock, Olympic champion Adam Hollyman, who was with Kirklees Cycling Academy, Chevin Cycles and East Bradford CC before joining his current team, took second in the Junior Yorkshire Divisional Championships – even though he still has a year left as he’s a first-year Junior. Peaty, and GB sprinters Adam Gemili and Dina Asher-Smith.
The School Games are the springboard for future athletes with 56 of the 382 athletes representing Team GB at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio having competed at the School Games.
The four-day event is supported by National Lottery funding from Sport England and delivered by the Youth Sport Trust.
Huddersfield’s Oliver Rees contested the cycling competition.
It featured 13 different regional teams, competing in five different events with the Scratch Race and the Road Race as highlights.
But an innovative Team Time Trial using Zwift was a key talking point.
Zwift, an exciting piece of software
Hollyman – whose 14-year-old brother Henry also competes – is at Wakefield College studying a Level Three Sports and Excellence qualification.
He is a former Emley First School, Kirkburton Middle School and Shelley College student. that allows riders from all over the world to compete on a static cycle trainer, was being used at the School Games for the first time.
It was the 50m sprint where Rees excelled, the Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Wakefield, pupil competing as part of the Yorkshire team.
In a best-of-three trials format, Rees posted his fastest time with his first attempt, crossing the line in 5.530seconds to take ninth place overall.
Rees said: “The best thing about the School Games is the independence and how it makes you feel like a real athlete.
“I guess this is your first taste of what it’s like to go to a Games with other sports.”