Champions Crowned in Debut Event at RaboPlus New Zealand Track Championships

Waikato Bay of Plenty have been crowned the first New Zealand Women’s Team Pursuit champions on day five of the RaboPlus New Zealand Track Championships in Invercargill.

The event made its debut at the champs’ earlier today and the Waikato Bay of Plenty team of Sonia Waddell, Rushlee Buchanan and Jamie Neilson dominated from qualifying to finals, winning the event in a time of 3:30.850, nearly six seconds clear of their final opponents Southland.

The time was also faster than their time in qualifying, which meant they broke the very new New Zealand record they set this morning.

Auckland claimed bronze ahead of West Coast North Island.

The Waikato Bay of Plenty team is coached by Olympic Individual Pursuit gold medallist Sarah Ulmer and features two rowing converts in 23-year-old Jamie Neilson who just two weeks ago won three medals at the Rowing Nationals in Twizel and former Olympian Waddell.

“We’ve actually only ever had two rides together so it feels like it’s getting better with every ride and I’m absolutely loving the sport, the culture in cycling is so much fun,” Waddell said.

The women’s team pursuit is a new event on the world scene and will be contested at the UCI World Championships at the end of this month.

That meant the national selectors were closely watching tonight’s finals with spots up for grabs in the New Zealand team for the Worlds’.

New Zealand’s new queen of the track, Individual Pursuit champion Alison Shanks will lead the team in Poland and a number of riders, including Neilson and Auckland’s Kaytee Boyd were under close scrutiny tonight from the selectors.

New Zealand has already had success at World Cup level with Shanks, Boyd and Lauren Ellis winning gold in Beijing earlier this year.

 

In the other finals raced tonight Canterbury took out the Women’s 500m Team Sprint final ahead of the Auckland Under 19 team, while Canterbury beat Auckland in the men’s 750m Team Sprint Final.

The Canterbury team was led by Hayden Godfrey who will head to Poland with the New Zealand team to defend his Omnium World Championship title.

Godfrey, who took silver in the 1000m time trial and bronze in the 30km Points race is happy with his form going into the biggest event of the year and is confident the New Zealand team will perform well in Poland.

“This is probably going to be one of the most successful teams New Zealand has ever sent to a World Champs’ and I know the team will be very disappointed if we don’t get exceptional performances, we are just expecting it now, it’s a state of mind,” said Godfrey.

The big focus at the track tomorrow will come in the form of a record breaking attempt by the New Zealand men’s team pursuiters who will look to go under the old New Zealand mark set in Invercargill two years ago.

The team, which won bronze at the Beijing Olympics last year, will also use the attempt to fine tune combinations ahead of the World Champs’.

Day 5 Results:
Open Women 500m Team Sprint Final:
Canterbury (Natasha Hansen, Elizabeth Steel) 36.484 1, Auckland JU19 (Claire Routledge, Henrietta Mitchell) 37.124 2, Otago (Honor Davies, Charlotte Kelly) 37.270 3, Wellington (Hannah Latta, Hayley Giddens) 38.474 4.

Elite Men 750m Team Sprint Final:
Canterbury (Hayden Godfrey, Adam Stewart, Sam Steele) 47.075 1, Auckland #1 (Andrew Williams, Myron Simpson, Damien Wiseman) 47.266 2, Southland (Eddie Dawkins, Hamish Presbury, Ian Densie) 47.925 3, Auckland #2 (Ben Simpson, Jamie Bate, Jonathan Bass) 49.439 4.

Women’s 3000m Team Pursuit Final:
Waikato Bay of Plenty (Rushlee Buchanan, Jamie Neilson, Sonia Waddell) 3:30.850 1 [NZ Record], Southland (Dale Tye, Sequoia Cooper, Cathy Jordan) 3:36.699 2, Auckland (Marina Duvnjak, Ashleigh James, Kaytee Boyd) 3:37.704 3, West Coast North Island(Brei Gudsell, Gemma Dudley, Kerri-Anne Torckler) 3:39.612 4.

 

For full results: bikenz.org.nz