Waikato-BoP sprint trio get into gear at track nationals
Record falls as new format catches on
The records for Cycling New Zealand’s female riders continued to tumble on the final day of the Track National Championships at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome in Cambridge on Saturday.
The women’s team sprint combination of Te Awamutu’s Rebecca Petch along with Olivia King and
Ellesse Andrews broke the national record in their first three-person team sprint.
Since 2021, the females team sprint is over the same distance as the men with three riders over 750m, from the previous two riders over 500m.
The Waikato-BOP combination clocked 48.451s on Saturday morning to edge under the previous national record set at the championships last year of 48.475s.
The time would have qualified the Kiwi trio fifth fastest at last year’s UCI Track World Championships in France and only 0.09s from the third fastest qualifying time.
Leading the way was BMX national champion Petch, who rocketed out of the blocks with a 19.01s opening lap that would have been second fastest of all riders at the 2021 world championships.
“It was a pleasing performance given it was not only their first time together, but their first-ever threelap team sprint,” said coach Fionn Cullinane. “It was good preparations for this trio.”