The final day of racing at the SuperDrome in Adelaide promised plenty of action with 15 Southlanders in action on the final day of competition at the 2013 Oceania Track Cycling Championships. Pieter Bulling, Jeremy Presbury, Cameron Karwowski, Laura Heywood and Sequoia Cooper made sure that promise was delivered on with medal-winning performances.
First up, Steph McKenzie and Tarsh Hansen both successfully qualified for the quarter finals of the Women's Sprint. Kaarle McCulloch recorded the fastest qualifying time with 11.28 followed by Steph Morton's 11.41 and then Hansen's 11.56 and McKenzie's 11.57.
McKenzie took out her quarter final over Katie Schofield two-straight to set up a show-down with Australian Olympian McCulloch in the semis while Hansen went down 2-1 to superstar-in-waiting Taylah Jennings of Queensland, who dominated her competition at the UCI Juniors Track Worlds in Invercargill in August.
Hansen hit back to take out the 5th-7th ride while McKenzie pushed McCulloch (who would ultimately go on to win the title) all the way before narrowly losing her semifinal. McKenzie and Jennings squared off for bronze in the evening's final session with the contest going the distance to a deciding third ride with Jennings taking it out and confining McKenzie to fourth place.
In the Men's Keirin, Matt Archibald won his heat and was the only Kiwi to take the direct route to the semis. Eddie Dawkins lead to the line before getting overtaken in the final few metres and had to go via the repechage, as did Matt Dodds, Karl Watson and Lee Evans. Dawkins and Sam Webster both successfully negotiated the repechage to qualify for the semis.
However the Kiwi threesome will had to settle for riding off for 7th to 12th after failing to qualify from the semis. Dawkins finished in 8th overall and Archibald 9th.
Similarly, Jeremy Presbury was the sole New Zealander to qualify directly in the Under-19 Keirin, finishing second in his heat and doing a good job to stay upright with carnage behind him. Nick Kergozou wasn't as lucky - his outstanding debut international competition came to a painful end when he was brought down in the crash, ruling him out of the rest of today's racing.
Presbury was then able to successfully navigate his way into the final courtesy of his semifinal win and was joined in the top six by fellow New Zealanders Daniel Rafferty and Zac Williams. Australia's Jay Castles (a first year U19) showed his unquestioned potential by claiming the title with Presbury taking another step in his short international career with silver and Williams getting up for bronze.
In the Omniums Laura Heywood recorded a solid 2:37.3 to finish 9th in the U19 IP, followed by 12th in the scratch race.
Sequoia Cooper recorded the third fastest Elite Women's pursuit in 3:49.2 to take sole possession of third place just a point ahead of Gemma Dudley of Levin. That would be a lead Cooper would not relinquish as she consolidated with third in the scratch race and claimed the bronze medal behind Annette Edmondson and Isabella King.
Pieter Bulling was also right on schedule with his IP, setting 4:33.9 for his 4000m to consolidate second overall. With the scratch and kilo to come Luke Davison leds on 8 points with Bulling on 14 and Alex Morgan on 19. Cam Karwowski remained in the mix but slipped a place to fourth after recording 4:36.4 - good enough for sixth in the IP. Bradley Tuhi placed 12th in the IP with 4:51.2 and sat in 13th overall.
Bulling and Karwowski then turned in solid scratch race efforts with Bulling finishing 2nd and Karwowski 4th to confirm their positions heading in to the final event, the kilo. Bulling nailed down his silver medal with a 1:04.210 kilo and Karwowski joined him on the podium thank to a 1:04.210 which saw him move ahead of Alex Morgan by a solitary point. In the end Cam could thank his Southland team-mate. With Piet slipping in front of Morgan in the kilo, that dropped him the extra place which allowed Karwowski to join Bulling when the medals were handed out. Brad Tuhi finished with 1:09.654 for his last 1000 metres of the Omnium.
Laura Heywood ended her international debut in brilliant fashion with a silver medal in the Under 19 Women Points Race. Coming on the back of two days of Omnium, she dug deep to take second with 10 sprint points behind Elissa Wundersitz of WA (13 points) with Ruby Greig-Hurtig from Victoria (8 points) taking third.
Sequoia Cooper and Aimee Burns then concluded their racing campaigns in the Elite Women's Points Race, finising 6th and 7th respectively.
The championships concluded with the Men's madison featuring Pieter Bullling, partnered with Dylan Kennett (sixth) and Cam Karwowski, paired with Brad Evans of Otago (seventh).
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