Strong showing from Southland
It’s been a busy couple of weeks on the bike for Southland’s Marshall Erwood.
Fresh off victory at the Cycling New Zealand Elite Road Nationals in Timaru, he backed up that impressive effort with four medals at the Oceania Track Championships in Cambridge.
Erwood, 19, produced an outstanding ride in the under-23 road race to fend off a strong field and secure gold, while in Cambridge he came up against New Zealand’s best cyclist, Aaron Gate, and some visiting Australians.
His track medals came in the individual pursuit, team pursuit, omnium and scratch race.
“Coming off road nationals and doing a 200-kilometre race and winning that was something I never expected and then going to the track and getting those results was a shock. I expected to go into it with quite tired legs but they held up surprisingly well and I felt really good the majority of the champs.”
It was Erwood’s first time competing in the elite division which saw him come up against New Zealand’s top track stars like Gate, Tom Sexton and others. He rates the gold in Timaru as his most special medal, while the omnium bronze also sat highly.
“It’s four different races and you accumulate points over those. I was tracking really well heading into the second last race and got a puncture and dropped down the leaderboard. Coming into the final race I was fuelled with anger and wanted to give it my best and I managed to lap the field three times.”
Erwood said cyclists he rated highly were Australian Kelland O’Brien and fellow Kiwis George Jackson and Gate.
Erwood said he would love to go pro on the road one day but still loves track and wants to represent New Zealand.
Next up are nationals in Cambridge. He will be training hard for a couple of months before he leaves in May for a road stint in the United States.
Other Southland cyclists shone on the track including Sexton, Nick Kergozou, Nicole Shields, Magnus Jamieson and Lucy Griffin. G-Force Cycling rider Caitlin Kelly is a future star following some fantastic performances, and Finn Edwards, Malachi McLaren, Daniel Bell, Daniel Morton and Liam Ramsey also showed they have bright futures.
On the road, Southland’s international star Corbin Strong finished second, while Carter Guichard, Max Good, Hayden Strong, Josh Burnett, Liam O’Rourke and Hamish Keast all performed strongly. Sexton, Eliot Crowther, Max Good and Rob Huisman failed to finish the 200km road race.