From Ivar
Just finished our diner, and the first day of the Nats.
Great to see some of NZ best track cyclists on the boards. The ECNI didn't set the track on fire in our events but we are getting closer.
Kyle Rika is back in the Open Men Sprint race through the repecharge and is in the 8th final first thing tomorrow morning. Ben Simpson got a DQ in the 3km Individual Pursuit Omnium and is not allowed to finish this event. Rebekah Rankin took 10sec. off her personal best in the U19 2km Indivual Pursuit but it was not enough to get in the finals. Ashleigh Neave had a slow start out of the gates in the U17 Girls and couldn't make it up in the 500mtr TT, with the winner from Auckland taking the title and setting a new NZ record. Fraser Gough had a solid race and is looking good but the level required to medal in the U17Boys 500mtr TT is high, same for Lars Hopman.
However John Ellery made a great start to his Nats despite kicking his back wheel out of wack at the start, he finished unofficially 11th with a time of 36.6 sec. Not a bad result at all for someone who only has competed four times on the track including today's race. Tomorrow we have the Juniors lining up for a 2km pursuit. And I been conned into entering the Master 2 champs, they haven't got enough riders to make it a medal event so I have put my hand up. Keep you posted.
John Ellery's View
East coast took on to the track with the elite omnium off first, which later on in the pursuit was a misunderstanding of the rules, that caused a DQ of one of the east coast riders. The men’s sprinting was up next with Kyle, so close to coming through but didn’t quite make it over top but had a second chance and made it through to the next stage of the tournament. When the mighty under 17’s came out do there bit in the first day of the track nationals, the field became a lot bigger which offered more competition for the under 17’s. They tried there hardest but couldn’t pull it together enough to compete for the podium finish with the huge people from the other sectors of New Zealand.
Editors Comment
Westley Gough has been seconded to the West Coast team by the NZ officals .
