Fight-back secures bronze
The Cycling New Zealand men’s team pursuit, including Te Awamutu Sports Cycling Club’s Lewis Johnston, produced a remarkable fight-back to grab the bronze medal on day two of the UCI Track Cycling Junior Championships in Tel Aviv.
Their medal followed the bronze from the men’s team sprint on the opening day at the Sylvan Adams Velodrome.
There were 42 nations competing but with the Covid pandemic, it is the first time in three years that New Zealand has taken part.
The men’s team pursuit combination qualified fifth fastest but earned the ride for bronze after a strong performance in the second round, to take on the Denmark team.
The Danes started strongly, opening a 1.8 second advantage at 1000m, and pushed this to a massive 3.6 second lead at the midway point, despite a sub-60 second effort by the Kiwis in the second kilometre.
However, Denmark may have paid for their endeavours in the oppressive heat at the velodrome, as a 62-second effort brought New Zealand to within 1.5 seconds at 3000m.
In the final 1000m flurry with both teams exhausted, New Zealand edged in front for the first time in the final lap, to clock 4:10.30 and claim the bronze medal by just 0.4s.
The quartet of Kyle Aitken, Johnston, Oliver Watson-Palmer and Joel Douglas were joined on the podium by Eddie Pawson, who rode in the qualifying rounds, and by coach Andrew Williams.
The New Zealand team were delighted with their endeavours against more experienced opposition.
“The competition here is great. It is unreal to what we have experienced back in New Zealand. It’s been really cool to come out here and all push ourselves,” said Aitken.
“We wanted to go out and give it everything we’ve got. We had our lap splits and we know what we can do and so we had to give it our all.
“In those last two laps, it was a case of give it everything you have and we pushed as hard as we could. That’s what got us to the line.”
Johnston came close to adding a third medal for the Cycling New Zealand team on day three of the UCI Track Cycling Junior Championships.
Johnston returned to the Sylvan Adams Velodrome for the 25km points race, finishing fourth and just six points behind the bronze medal.
He was one of four riders to lap the field twice, picking up 40 bonus points, but he was pipped for the bronze medal by Ukraine rider Valentyn Kabaskayi for six points.
It was an impressive performance in the 35C in the velodrome.