Southland Track Champs 2015

The 2015 Southland Track Champs will be held at SIT Zero Fees Velodrome from Friday 5 December to Sunday 7 December, 2014.

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Day 3 Wrap

It was a heaving programme with huge entries and some record-breaking results as the 2015 Southland Track Champs unfolded at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome over the past three days.

The event, which also played host to a UCI Para-cycling C1 Track Open for Australian and New Zealand riders to gather qualifying points for the Rio Paralympics, attracted almost 140 riders from as far as Auckland and involved 104 races totalling more than 20 hours of racing over four sessions. While there were many near-misses on the record breaking races, a cracker ride came from Neil Familton in the Masters 3 2000m individual pursuit qualifiers this afternoon when he broke his own national record by three seconds, clocking 2.26.032.

Meanwhile, Southland U19 Bradly Knipe carved his name on the velodrome boards as one to watch after smashing out 10.735 in his sprint qualifier during the Saturday afternoon session and then going on to beat Manawatu’s Liam Brown for gold. This could only be relative when put in comparison against big gun sprinter Ben Stewart’s 10.405 qualifier and making the two cyclists, of totally different builds, stand beside each other. It was certainly a result that drew the attention of our BikeNZ team who are currently competing at the London World Cup as they messaged through congratulations to Brad on Facebook overnight.

Stewart pulled through a tight, first-round sprint final race-off against fellow Southlander Fabian Wybrow and went to take gold in the Elite sprint, while another Southland pairing of Josh Haggerty and Josh van den Arend had two big battles with van den Arend proving too have the edge and netting the bronze. The coveted McLean Trophy for the fastest Elite man over a 1000m time trial was taken out by Wybrow, who had a fantastic weekend of racing, from Haggerty and van den Arend. Haggerty also scored gold in the 10km points and 4000m individual pursuit, with Anton O’Connell in third in the points and pursuit. A return to the track after a two-year break resulted in gold in the standing lap for Sean Fox, with silver for Stewart and bronze for Wybrow. Stewart then wrapped up the weekend with the kierin gold, Karl Watson took silver and Wybrow took bronze.

Proving her return to form on the boards, Southland’s Natasha Hansen had her final run on her "home velodrome" on Sunday before a move to Cambridge to work on cementing her position back in the NZ women’s sprint team. Hansen proved throughout the weekend that she’s still very much a class act cleanly taking our her sprint, standing lap and kierin events. Fellow Cambridge-based Southlander Kirstie James took the gold in the points before illness withdrew her from the final day of competition.

The U17 girls saw Wanaka’s Ellesse Andrews sweep the events for gold, with the time trial, scratch, sprint and standing lap titles. The U17 boys was a tight tussle among many with Southland’s Kain Bowles taking wins in the scratch, sprint and points, and silver in the standing lap, while his mate Mitchell Morris continued good form for gold in the time trial and standing lap, and bronze in the sprint.

Local lass Emma Cumming held her roost at the top of the U19 women, taking out gold in the scratch, sprint, kierin and standing lap and silver in the time trial, while her mates Makayla Smith netted silver in the points and bronze in the time trial and standing lap, while Aly Doherty secured silver in the scratch and bronze in the sprint. In the U19 men Knipe scored gold in the time trial, kierin Brayden Stephens took silver in the time trial, Hayden Stephens took gold in the 8km scratch and bronze in the standing lap and keirin, Hamish Beadle took silver in the scratch and standing lap and Tom Sexton took bronze in the time trial and 3000m individual pursuit and 10km points race,

The south’s Emily Paterson had a dream weekend in the U15 girls winning the 3km points race, time trial and scratch, with silver in the points, Camryn Akeroyd was third in the time trial and scratch, and Lucy Dawkes third in the points. Younger Knipe brother, Keegan, continued to show he also has good sprint genes winning the U15 time trial, scratch, derby and 4km points.

The Southland-filled Masters women world champion Masters 1 titleholder Erin Criglington holding her individual pursuit reign and all other M1 titles over Nicola Stevens, along with the combined kierin gold, and Stevens in the silver. while Familton took gold in the M2 events scratch, time trial and pursuit – despite coming down in a points crash on Saturday night. Mark Day secured silver in the time trial. The combined men’s kierin had Brett Roulston with gold, Jon Andrews with silver and An Leathart with bronze.

Jon Andrews took gold in the time trial, with Jerard Stock getting bronze, Andrew Lienert with bronze in the 7.5km points race

The M2 women had Sam Kopae with gold in the 5km scratch, 2000m individual pursuit, silver in the time trial, and bronze in the kierin, Jacqui Dearlove gold in time trial, silver in the individual pursuit, bronze in the scratch, Sonya Barton with silver in the scratch, bronze in time trial,

In the U13s Zoe Andrews took out the time trial and derby final from Sam Clark in second and Hannah Harvey in third. While Clark took out Andrews and Harvey in a wheel race.

Day 2 – Session One Wrap

Another huge session of racing greeted almost 140 riders from all over the country at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome again this morning with sprinter qualifers, quarters and semis, along with points races and Para-cycling individual pursuits at the 2015 Southland Track Championships and UCI Para-cycling C1 Track Open.

Sam Kopae proved too strong to take the Masters 2 women’s 2000m individual pursuit from Jacqui Dearlove, just back from a track racing hiatus, with Sonya Barton in third.

The Masters 1, 2 and 3 combined men’s 7.5km points final saw eight on the track but a crash just after the first lap sprint saw two riders withdraw and Timaru’s Craig Domigan stole the show with 23 points from Waikato’s Grant Tyrrell on eight and Southland’s Andrew Lienert on seven.

An 11-strong field of U17 girls went up for the sprint qualifiers with Ellesse Andrews continuing her strong form head through to the sprint semi-finals, along with Kate Ward and Georgia Bushell, both from Canterbury, and Madeleine Gough (Otago).

Meanwhile, Southland’s Kain Bowles continued to lead the pecking order from a 15-strong field of U17 boys through the sprint qualifiers and quarters to reach the semis with team mate Mitchell Morris, and Joshua Scott and Matthew Trenchard both from Canterbury.

Emma Cumming continued to relish her move to U19 women leading the chase to the semis along with team mate Aly Doherty, along with Jaymie King (Taupo) and Sarah McLeod (Canterbury). The Elite women saw the return of Natasha Hansen to the track after an injury break, but she once again proved she is the queen of the Southland boards leading the hunt to the semis along with Kate Shearer and Gemma Payne, from Christchurch, and Tess Young, of Te Awamutu.

The U19 men’s sprint semis highlighted the ongoing rise of Southlander Bradly Knipe who proved his speed is hard beat at the moment. He was joined by Canterbury’s Rhys Jones and Sam Buckner from Manawatu.

The Elite men’s semi-final saw a Southland rider launch for top spot with big sprinter Ben Stewart being met by Josh Haggerty, while Fabian Wybrow meets the long legs of Josh van den Arend.

Racing continues today at 6pm, followed by the final session on Sunday starting at 10am. Entry is just a gold coin donation.

For full results see the links below.

Day One Wrap

Warm conditions made for some fast times during an action-packed and extensive programme during the first night of the 2015 Southland Track Championships and UCI Para-cycling C1 Track Open at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome last night.

The feature event of the night – the Elite Men 1000m Time Trial – saw Southland’s Fabian Wybow just edge out Josh Haggerty to claim the MacLean Trophy with the fastest time of 1.06.236 from Haggerty’s 1.06.708 with Josh van den Arend in third with 1.07.395.

The final race of the night saw 21 riders take the field for the Under 19 and Elite men’s 8km scratch race and the fast pace and driving charges from the bunch resulted in 6 riders not finishing. Southland U19 Hayden Strong took the honours of gold after the 32 lap battle, with team mate Hamish Beadle settling for silver and Lachie McGregor (Otago) taking third spot.

The combined U19 and Elite women’s 5km scratch put another big field of 17 on the boards with Southland’s Cambridge-based Kirstie James taking the finish line first, from U19 Emma Cumming and Christchurch U19 Sarah McLeod in third.

Southland’s U17s were also in fine form with Wanaka-based Ellesse Andrews, showing stand-out form on the bike after a winter season of netball, taking out the 500, time trial and then the 3km girls scratch race from India Domigan (Timaru) and Georgia Bushell (Canterbury). Kain Bowles was also showing he had peaked at the right time to win the 5km scratch from Canterbury’s Joshua Scott and fellow Southlander Samuel Miller.

In the U15s, Southland’s Emily Paterson was also netted double gold, along with Keegan Knipe in the boys.

Racing continues today at 10am and again at pm, followed by the final session on Sunday starting at 10am. Entry is just a gold coin donation.

For full results see the link below.

Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) is excited announce the registration of two International C1 Para-Cycling Events with the International Cycling Union (UCI) for the 2015 season.

Brendon Cameron (PNZ Bike Head Performance Coach) said, “From a strategic perspective hosting the events will provide an outstanding opportunity for New Zealand Development athletes to compete at an international level and gain international exposure on home ground.” He continues, “These events also allow NZ Para-Cycling to gain valuable UCI points vital for qualifying spots leading into the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.”

The events will include a UCI C1 Track Cycling event in Invercargill in early December 2014 (to be run in conjunction with the 2015 Southland Track Championships); and a UCI C1 Road Event to be held in Cambridge in early May 2015.

Participants will include High Performance and Development Para-Cyclists from New Zealand and Australia, with the prospect of other nations attending as they chase qualifying points for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.