On track for success: From Fairhall to World Cup gold
A cyclist who got his love for bikes visiting childhood mates across rural Marlborough has pedalled to a World Cup title.
Callum Saunders last week won gold at his debut UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong, beating world champion Matthijs Buchli and Olympic champion Jason Kenny in the keirin final.
Saunders said he had been overwhelmed by support since the win.
He grew up in rural Fairhall, 8km south-west of Blenheim, where visiting friends was a hike.
‘‘I learnt pretty quickly that it’s faster to get somewhere on a bike than on your feet,’’ he said.
‘‘It was also a lot easier than pestering my parents for a ride.’’
He said he started seriously considering pursuing cycling when he was in year 12 at Marlborough Boys’ College.
He had started off road biking but found ‘‘the track was just naturally where I was excelling a bit more, and sprinting in particular, so I focused on that’’.
Now 24 and living in Waikato, he said his career had been a bit of a ‘‘funny one’’ after he put the sport on hold for a couple of years in 2014 because of injury.
‘‘It forced me off the bike but to be honest, I probably wanted to have a reason to hop off it for a while there – just because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to get out of it moving forward,’’ Saunders said.
‘‘So injuries came as a bit of a relief – I had almost two years of not training or racing consistently – but by the end of 2015, I wanted to get back on the bike.’’
He faced another setback in 2016 when he was hit by a car, requiring shoulder reconstruction surgery.
‘‘It made me realise it was what I wanted, I’ve consistently been on the bike since,’’ he said.
‘‘The position that I’m in now, there’s no question about it, this is what I want to be doing.’’
He had an open mind about where the sport would take him.
‘‘Obviously the [Olympic] Games have always been a dream and that will always be the thing that I will be pushing for.
‘‘I want to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way and that may or may not be taking the start line in Tokyo.’’
‘‘There’s no question about it, this is what I want to be doing.’’
Callum Saunders