A world best performance and another two national records fell on the second morning of racing at the 2012 RaboDirect Age Group Track Cycling Championships in Invercargill today.
After narrowly missing a world's best time for his age category in last night's Masters Men Time Trial (pictured left) by just 0.002 seconds, Wellington's Gary Humpherson smashed the previous World mark for 75 to 79 year olds in the 2000 metre Individual Pursuit. Humpherson clocked 2 minutes 36.650 seconds to take over 15 seconds off the old mark set by Frenchmen Raymond Pelle at last year's World Masters Championships.
New Zealand Para-Cycling representative Fiona Southorn, riding as a Masters 2 Woman (45+ years) for her Northland centre set a new National Record in the Women's 2000m Individual Pursuit with her qualifying time of 2:38.130. She will face the former record-holder and defending champion Jacqui Dearlove of Southland in the gold medal ride tonight. Southland Sam Kopae will ride for bronze against Otago's Jan McCleland.
It's another national championship and yet another national record for Southland's Erin Criglington. She again blitzed the qualifying field to record 2:35.785 for her 2000m Individual Pursuit in Masters 1 (35-44 years). It took another quarter of a second off her previous best. Criglington will ride for gold against team-mate Kylea Gough while Otago's Rachel Sime will face Nicola Stevens of Southland for bronze.
The Under 17 Boys 2000m Individual Pursuit record may also be under some threat tonight. Pieter Bulling's record of 2 minutes 18.093 seconds has stood since 2009 but fellow southerner Michael Culling went as close as anyone has over the last three years, recording 2:19.488 to qualify fastest and set up a ride for gold against Canterbury's Connor Stead. Mid South Canterbury's Jack Ford will face Tasman's Cameron Ford for bronze.
The Masters Men Individual Pursuits will see Richard Justice square off against national title and record holder Bruce Jones for gold in Masters 3 (55+) with Humpherson taking on Les Candy from Waikato-Bay of Plenty for bronze. The Masters 2 (45-54) medals will be decided between Auckland's Andrew McKay and East Coast North Island's Kerry Harford for gold and Peter Jenkins and Mark Hopkinson, both from Auckland, riding for bronze. And the Masters 1 (35-44) gold is guaranteed to go to Southland with Garry Smith and Derek Tan squaring off. Auckland's Brett Slater and Craig Domigan will battle for the third place on the podium.
The session finished with qualifying heats in the Under 17 Girls Points Race and Under 17 boys and Under 19 men scratch races.
The U17 Points final will be contested between Laura Heywood, Kate Stewart, Mikayla Smith, Holly Edmondston, Maxyna Cottam, Harriett Sutton, Lydia Rippon and Shannon Grinter from Heat 1 and Maddison Farrant, Samantha Croft, Olivia Podmore, Charlotte Hand, Ione Johnson, Bryony Botha, Georgia Vessey and Emma Porritt as Heat 2 qualifiers.
An unprecedented three qualifying heats were required in the Under 17 Boys Scratch Race with the following riders winning through to tonight's medal-deciding final; Nick Kergozou, Commor Stead, Regan Gough, Tim Lund and Lachie McGregor (Heat 1), Reon Sheath, Corbin mason-Smith, Quinn Karwowski, Lewis Stevens and Louis Higgison (Heat 2) and Cameron Ford, Jordan Castle, Luke Mudgway, Sam Buckner and Michael Culling (Heat 3).
And the session finals say 10 qualifiers from each of the Under 19 Men's Scratch Race decided. Daniel Ellison, George Tutton, Hardy Michel, Dylan Kennett, Max Beckert, Tom Vessey, Jeremy Presbury, Boris Clark, Mitchell Podmore and Liam Aitcheson won through from the first heat while Daniel Rafferty, Tom Beadle, Hamish Schreurs, Hayden McCormick, Tayla Harrison, Chad Elliston, Harrison Perriam, Luke Wieblitz, Callum Saunders and Kristoff Ford all successfully made it through from the second and final heat.
Racing starts tonight at 6pm with finals from each of the morning qualifiers along with Under 15 and Under 19 Time trials and the Under 19 Women scratch race which is a straight final this evening.
For full results and further Track nationals coverage, click here
The RaboDirect Age Group Championships run through until Saturday evening.