Record falls at RaboPlus New Zealand Track Championships

Another New Zealand record has fallen at the RaboPlus New Zealand Track Championships with Southland’s Eddie Dawkins smashing his previous 1000m Time Trial record in tonight’s final in Invercargill.

Dawkins time of 1:02.157 lowered the record he set two years ago by over a second and a half and gave him his second national title of the champs’ following his win in the Sprint final on Tuesday night.

The 19-year-old however lost the record for all of about five minutes when New Zealand team member Marc Ryan went under the old mark just minutes before Dawkins rode his heat.

“Losing the record ahead of my ride gave me the edge and the drive to get it back, I had to put everything on the line and it worked out just, but you don’t have to win by much, you just have to win,” said Dawkins.

Veteran Hayden Godfrey finished second in a time of 1:02.331, which was also under Dawkins’ old record of 1:03.700.

Dawkins will now be hoping he’s done enough to gain the New Zealand selectors’ attention ahead of Saturday night’s naming of the national team for the World Championships in Poland at the end of the month.

New Zealand cycling’s newest queen of the track Alison Shanks also claimed a second national title with a surprise win in the women’s 500m time trial.

The 26-year-old’s time of 36.035 was just a fraction of a second faster than defending champion and race favourite Natasha Hansen of Canterbury.

Shanks, who twice broke the New Zealand record yesterday in her favoured Individual Pursuit had only raced the time trial once prior to tonight’s win, but admits she is no stranger to the distance in training.

“We do them quite a bit in training, it’s part of our strength work, however in race conditions you always get your game face on and you can go that much faster and tonight was by far the fastest 500 time I’ve ever done,” Shanks said.

The nationals are now over for Shanks, who will head into camp with the New Zealand team ahead of the World Championships in Poland at the end of the month.
Her fine form in Invercargill and World Cup gold in Beijing in January means she will go in as one of the medal favourites in the Individual Pursuit at the World Champs.
“There’s only been one time faster than me this season, so yeah my times are up there and hopefully we can carry that form through to the big one.”

The last race of the night was the Women’s 20km Points Final where Lauren Ellis (Mid South Canterbury) claimed victory ahead of Waikato Bay of Plenty’s Rushlee Buchanan and Gemma Dudley (West Coast North Island).

Tomorrow sees the women’s 500m team sprint, the men’s 750m team sprint and the women’s 3000m team pursuit contested.

Day 4 Results:

Elite Women 500m Time Trial Final
Alison Shanks (Otago) 36.035 1, Natasha Hansen (Canterbury) 36.098 2, Honor Davies (Otago) 37.592 3, Penny Day (Canterbury) 37.612 4.

Elite Men 1000m Time Trial Final
Eddie Dawkins (Southland) 1:02.157 [NZ Record] 1, Hayden Godfrey (Canterbury) 1:02.331 2, March Ryan (Mid South Canterbury) 1:03.252 3, Jason Allen (Mid South Canterbury) 1:03.954 4.

Elite Women 20km Points Final
Lauren Ellis (Mid South Canterbury) 18 pts 1, Rushlee Buchanan (Waikato/BOP) 17 pts 2, Gemma Dudley (West Coast North Island) 13 pts 3, Rosy McCall (Auckland) 10pts 4.

For full results: bikenz.org.nz