The second day of racing featured sprints and Points races along with the first ever championship Masters Women bunch race – and every one of them featured top quality racing.
Olivia Podmore started the day where she left the first, qualifying fastest in the Under 17 Girls sprint with 12.647, ahead of Emma Cumming, debutant Lucy Timpany and Makayla Smith. Podmore was not headed through quarter, semi and finals and will front at next year’s Age Group nationals as a firm favourite across the sprint events. Another debutant, Laura Moffatt, was just as impressive, winning her way through to the final to claim the Southland title. She beat Timpany (1-0) and Sheree Horne (2-0) to claim her first Southland title with Smith taking silver and Horne the bronze. Earlier, Smith was part of the closest finish of the day where 0.001 seconds separated her and Bronwyn Graham in their Quarter final ride.
The Under 17 Men’s sprint was a close affair. Timaru’s Jack Ford qualified in top spot, ahead of Josh Carpenter and Hamish Beadle but it was Beadle who showed supreme match sprinting prowess to take the victory after beating Rhys Jones two-straight in the final. Carpenter took silver and Brayden Stephens bronze.
Tessa Jenkins from Otago qualified 0.4 seconds faster than Libby Bayne and then took the win over her sole competitior two-straight in the final, while Katie Schofield recorded an 11.826 in qualifying before beating out Kirstie James two-straight in the Elite Women’s final.
The Under 19 contest went the way of Fabian Wybrow of Timaru with Josh Haggerty taking the first of two impressive Southland titles winning through to the final, while Jeremy Presbury took silver and Mike Culling bronze.
The Elite Men’s competition was dominated by Matt Archibald. He qualified fastest in 10.347, just 0.062 ahead of NZ team mate Eddie Dawkins in what was shaping to be a great contest between two of NZ’s sprint elite. However, illness robbed us of the spectacle with Dawkins forced to withdraw prior to the semi finals. Archibald won through over James Vercoe while Tom Beadle defeated Karl Watson in the semifinals before Archibald took victory over Beadle to successfully defend his Southland sprint title.
Points race titles were also handed out with Jerard Stock marking his first event in the Masters 2 Men’s ranks with victory over Ant Leathart with Neil Familton taking bronze. Michael White, Andrew Lienert and Derek Tan fought all the way to the final sprint in the Masters 1 race before White triumphed, taking the last sprint and the gold from Lienert and Tan.
The day also featured the first Masters Women’s championship bunch race with a 5km scratch race. The event, the latest addition to the National championship programme was won by Erin Criglington from Nicola Stevens and Jacqui Dearlove.
Meanwhile the Under 15 girls points race was won by Kate Ward from Pegasus who took all three sprint wins, while Brooke Hargest claimed the Southland title, courtesy of her second place in the final sprint which was enough to push her ahead of Madeleine Gough by a solitary point.
Similarly, Kain Bowles continued his domination of the Under 15 Boys, winning each of the race’s four sprint to claim the Southland title over Brayden Holland and Corbin Strong.
Olivia Podmore completed her own clean sweep of the Under 17 girls points race, again she won each of the sprints while Makayla Smith picked the right wheel in the final sprint – her second place finish in the final race to the line enough to earn her the Southland win ahead of Emma Cumming.
The Under 17 Boys race followed a similar trend to Friday night’s scratch race. The pace was on from the gun and the field was quickly split. In the end Hayden Strong took the victory over Jack Ford, with Hamish Beadle third overall and winning silver as the second Southlander home and Tom Sexton taking bronze.
The Elite and Under 19 races again capped the race programme. Kylie Young took the Elite gold from Laura Heywood who claimed the Under 19 title and finished second overall. The Elite silver went to Laura Fairweather and bronze to Aimee Burns. The Under 19 silver went to Jennifer Muhl with bronze going to Georgia Vessey.
In perhaps the most impressive ride of the day, Josh Haggerty dominated the Elite and Under 19 Points race, finishing 15 points clear of his nearest rival to take gold. Tom Vessey finished as the leading Southland elite rider, in his first year out of the junior ranks, ahead of fellow first year Matt Zenovich with Mike Cullign earning silver in the Under 19 ranks.
Racing concludes with the final session of competition on Sunday from 10am, beginning with Standing Laps and features Individual Pursuits, Keirins and Derbys.
Results
Friday Results | Saturday Results