New Zealand's team pursuit riders issued a loud Olympic warning shot with world-class winning performances on the opening night of the Oceania Track Championships in Invercargill yesterday.
The women's trio of Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis and Jaime Nielsen produced the fastest time in the world at sea level of 3min 19.759sec, smashing the record they set in the morning by a further 4sec.
Their time was 0.19sec outside the world record set by the United States at altitude in Mexico.
"We were conservative on schedule early because we were up against a strong Australian team and had to secure the win first. I thought the girls were really on schedule for a top time and so I let them go over the last kilometre," coach Dayle Cheatley said.
Minutes later, the men's quartet of Marc Ryan, Sam Bewley, Aaron Gate and Jesse Sergent shattered their previous best by more than 2sec in winning the 4000m men's team pursuit final in 3min 55.295sec.
The men produced a superbly judged ride, unleashing in the final kilometre.
"We had initially looked at going 3min 58sec but saw the girls had gone a lot quicker so we re-thought our goals," Bewley said. "We have been around the 3min 58sec mark for a few years so this is a big breakthrough." The records kept tumbling with Southland-based Natasha Hansen and Otago's Katie Schofield rewriting one of the oldest records, when they won the women's team sprint final.
They clocked 34.401sec to win the final over Australia's Rikki Belder and Tennille Falappi (35.768sec) to claim the record, previously set in 2007 by Fiona Carswell and Jocelyn Rastrick of 34.632sec.
Waimate's Dylan Kennett set the first record of the night when he won the under-19 3000m individual pursuit clocking 3min 20.435sec to beat Australia's Tirian McManus. Kennett, who won a silver medal in the omnium at the recent world junior championships, was 0.05sec inside the 2009 record of Canterbury's Michael Vink.
The men's team sprint trio of Ethan Mitchell, Sam Webster and Simon van Velthooven set the fastest time for a New Zealand combination in their morning qualifying ride. They topped qualifiers in 44.074sec which eclipsed their previous best of 44.118sec set at the Cali World Cup last year.
Mitchell jumped superbly in the final with Webster slightly back but Van Velthooven was four lengths off the back and, while he produced a strong return to win the race, it no doubt cost a further record. They won in 44.468sec from the Australian trio of Dan Ellis, Jason Niblett and Peter Lewis who clocked 44.870sec.
Van Velthooven recovered to generate a magnificent effort to win the gold medal in the men's 1000m time trial in 1min 01.157sec, to set a national record and a personal best by more than a second.
Hansen was another to follow up an outstanding effort in the team sprint to win the women's 500m time trial from Australia's Riki Belder in 35.038.
Australia's team pursuit world champion Ashley Ankudinoff pounced with two laps remaining to edge out New Zealand omnium champion Jo Kiesanowski and Australia's two-time Olympian Kate Bates to win the women's scratch race.
Invercargill star Tom Scully cleared out in a solo break 10 laps from the finish of the 15km men's scratch race, only to be caught on the final lap by Auckland's Myron Simpson with Wes Gough making it a New Zealand clean sweep.
No comments:
Post a Comment