Records tumble at the BikeNZ age group cycling championship

A world champion and a former Olympian set the standards as records tumbled in the BikeNZ Age GroupTrack Cycling Championship in Invercargill.

Local Southland rider Erin Criglington, the current age group World Champion in the individual pursuit, rode superbly in the women’s masters 1 division to win five titles. She won the 2000m individual pursuit, the keirin, the 4000m scratch race and the 500m Time Trial, as well as winning the Team Sprint with teammate Cherie Champion.

Meanwhile former Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist Jon Andrews set two new national records in the men’s Masters 2 age group.

Andrews, riding for Southland but now living in Wanaka, clocked 34.843s to take more than a second off the previous record in the 500m time trial. Andrews, seventh in the kilo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and double bronze medallist at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, also set a new record of 50.161s to win the 750m team sprint with Brett Roulston and Roger Nicholas.

Invercargill local Neil Familton and Auckland’s Richard Justice both went under the old national record in their qualifying rides in the masters 3 individual pursuit, with Familton edging out Justice for the gold in the final.  In his first year racing in masters 3, Familton also took the national title in the 7.5km points race.

This age group proved exceptionally strong with Auckland’s Russell Scott breaking his own national record in the 500m time trial, setting the fastest time of 35.558s.

In the junior ranks, Palmerston North rider Campbell Stewart dominated in the under 17 category for the second year.  He won titles in virtually all of his events as well as forming part of the victorious West Coast North Island team that won the team sprint.

Meanwhile the Southland quartet of Tom Sexton, Brayden Stephens, Hayden Strong and Hamish Beadle combined to win the under-17 3000m team pursuit, setting a new record of 3:24.44, demolishing the former record by nearly three seconds at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome.

Hosts Southland dominated the five-day meet to now take a healthy lead in the National Points Shield into the national elite championships that begin in Cambridge on Wednesday.

Southland is on 94 points ahead of West Coast North Island 45, Auckland 27, Canterbury 25, Tasman and Mid South Canterbury on 7, Waikato Bay of Plenty and East Coast North Island on 3 and Otago 2.

Full results for all events are available at www.cyclingsouth.org.nz