Cumming adds southern flavour to NZ team

There is a strong Southland presence in a talented New Zealand under-19 team announced to contest the Oceania track cycling championship in Invercargill later in the year.

A 17-strong team includes seven riders from Southland to compete on home turf at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome in Invercargill from October 8-11.

The Southland riders are led by outstanding young local rider Emma Cumming, who showed her versatility to win national junior titles in the sprint and scratch races and was runner-up in the 500m time trial.

It will be a

busy

time

for Cumming who heads to Australia later this month for the inaugural trans-Tasman clash which is part of their Tier 1 Olympic qualifying meet at Adelaide, and in August travels to the junior world track championship in Kazakhstan.

Other Southland hopes include sprinters Hamish Beadle and Bradly Knipe, Tom Sexton, Samuel Miller, Ellesse Andrews and Nicole Shields.

Knipe won the national junior titles in the keirin and team sprint and was third in the 1000m time trial and sprint, while Beadle was part of the successful team sprint and was third in the keirin.

The sprint pair are also in the New Zealand team for the transTasman battle, as is Auckland’s Connor Brown, Southland’s Tom Sexton and Canterbury’s Hugo Jones and Rose Marshall-Lee.

Meanwhile, Southland’s Tom Scully has won the opening round of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series in England with his Continental racing team Madison Genesis.

Scully rode to a solo win in the criterium on the Isle of Wight after team-mate Tom Stewart and dominated the points racing earlier in the one-hour race.