Under 19 Championships held
The Cambridge Avantidrome played host to the Vantage Elite and Under 19 Track National Championships over the long weekend.
World championship-bound trio of Kirstie James, Aaron Gate and Nick Kergozou all produced personal bests on the way to claiming titles on the opening day.
James held off fellow Vantage Elite teammate Jaime Nielsen to win the 3000m individual pursuit final.
The pair were even through the first 1000m before James’ relentless pace gave her the advantage, eventually taking two seconds off her previous best with Nielsen pleased with her effort to be runner-up in 3:30.665.
“Personally, it was a pretty good ride for me. To execute a ride like that at track nationals is so satisfying. It was a solid PB and a smooth and consistent ride which is something I have been working on for a while,” said James. “I can only peak once a year which will be the world championships so to produce a time like that out of peak form shows that I am on the right track.”
Nina Wollaston set a personal best to claim the bronze from fellow Waikato Bay of Plenty rider McKenzie Milne
Sam Webster chalked up another national individual sprint title, now too many for him to remember.
Webster clocked 9.766 seconds, the only rider under 10 seconds, in qualifying for the individual sprint.
Eventually Webster pushed through to the match race final against close friend Ethan Mitchell, winning in two straight rides.
“As we are under quite high training load, I was quite pleased with the time,” said Webster.
“I was able to build my way through the day and then another ride against Ethan — two guys who know each other too well. We have been training together since 2008. It was good fun,” Webster said.
Rising Waikato endurance rider
Jessie Hodges and sprinter Olivia Podmore enjoyed their first individual elite national titles.
Hodges managed to grab a late second lap to beat the in-form fellow Waikato rider Ally Wollaston and a strong elite field to win the women’s omnium.
“The top four were really close and I knew Ally had such a good sprint, so I changed tactics and knew I had to take a lap which I do not normally do, but it worked today,” said Hodges.
Meanwhile Podmore edged out her senior Vantage Elite teammate Natasha Hansen in two straight rides in the women’s sprint finals.
Wollaston and Hodges, who won three titles over the weekend, combined to win the women’s 20km madison while the Laurence Pithie combined with world scratch medallist Tom Sexton for Skoda Fruzio to win the men’s 25km madison.