Another title for Southland at RaboPlus New Zealand Track Cycling Championships

Southland has claimed another elite men’s title at the RaboPlus New Zealand Track Championships, with Eddie Dawkins dominating the men’s sprint final much to the delight of the Invercargill crowd

Dawkins took on arch-rival Simon van Velthooven (West Coast North Island) in the best of three sprint final but needed just the first two races to claim victory.

“I’ve done a lot of hard work, a lot of speed work and I said before tonight, I’m not going to let anyone take me to three rides in the final so I stuck to my word,” Dawkins said.

“On the day I had better form, better legs and a better frame of mind than Simon.”
As expected, both Dawkins and van Velthooven easily progressed through their semi-finals earlier in the night with the 19-year-old Dawkins winning two straight against Auckland’s Damien Wiseman, as did 20-year-old van Velthooven against Canterbury’s Adam Stewart.

Van Velthooven will get a chance to redeem himself against Dawkins in Saturday night’s Keirin where the Manawatu rider is the reigning champion.

In the women’s event defending champion Natasha Hansen from Canterbury went through both the morning quarterfinals and evening semis in dominant form, winning two straight against Otago’s Honor Davies in the semis before doing the same in the final against team-mate Penny Day.

“In every race I pretty much pushed myself and stretched my lead a bit, but I was thinking it was better to be safe than sorry,” said the 19-year-old.
Tomorrow promises to be the most exciting day yet at the champs’ with the men’s and women’s individual pursuiters in action.

Beijing World Cup gold medalists Alison Shanks and Jesse Sergent are likely to come up against some stern competition, with the women’s division especially competitive with up to a dozen riders pushing for qualification into the top four.