Westley won the points race by 19 points, great race blitzing field and taking most sprints with ease.
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Following reports form Ivar and the juniors
Big days for the riders, up before seven, breakfast and at the track at eight, gear checks and warm-up till ten, racing from 10. Sessions finish just before two, lunch and back at the track at four. Racing doesn't finish much before 10pm, home for home cooked diner at 10.30pm. Long hours but they learn a lot about track racing and how to prepare for different events.
Ivar
Day 2
The second day of racing at the National Track Championship started with an extremely cold morning. The racing began with the Elite men sprint 8th final in which ECNI rider Kyle Rika got beaten in both this and the repecharge to take him out of the competition and end his chances at a gold medal.
Next up was the under 19 men sprint qualifying. Stephen Rolfe managed to get a time of 12.384 to get 9th place just outside the mark for qualification for the next round. Ashleigh Neave rode her first competition 2000m pursuit and got 2:51.429 a great time for a first run and got her tenth place. In the under 17 boys 2000m pursuit Fraser Gough got a time of 2:33.076putting him in 18th place. Lars Hopman got 20th with a time of 2:37.126 and John Ellery got 21st with 2:37.786. All of these times were personal bests for the young riders.
Later that day Stephen Rolfe raced in the U19 8000m scratch qualification and got 7th allowing him to continue on to tomorrows final.
Ivar Hopman manager for the ECNI team will be racing tomorrow in the cat 2 masters 12.5km scratch race in the hopes of getting a medal and showing his riders how its done.
Day 3
Wednesday took off with the under 17’s boys doing there scratch heats, with Lars Hopman making it through to the next heat, the next round saw Lars knocked out so left the East Coast boys out of the remaining scratch races.
Elite woman took to the track for 3000m pursuit heats, with the East Coast rider Kerri anne Torckler placing very well with a time of 3.48, finishing 2nd place behind Alison Shanks, who broke the New Zealand record set by Sarah Ulmer .
Westley Gough from East Coast, representing the West Coast started his 4000m pursuit against some tough competitors from throughout New Zealand, all trying to impress the New Zealand selectors. He finished second in his heats by a very small margin and went in to the finals chasing the gold medal. At the end of a close race Gough earned a silver medal.
The next race to head under way was the U17 girls 8km points race, with ECNI rider Ashleigh Neave competing. The fast sprints proved too much for Neave who rode well after sliding from the track earlier in the day.
Rebekah Rankin, riding for East Coast rode well in her U19 6km scratch race. The fast pace took its victims yet Rebekah rode strongly finishing with the powerful bunch.
The U17 boys Fraser Gough and Lars Hopman also rode their 10km points race. Lars, feeling the effects of a week of full on racing, was lapped part way through the race and was pulled out. Fraser showed his track bloodlines taking several points in the sprints, yet despite riding so well he just missed out on gaining a medal.
The final ride of the day was the Masters 15km points final, in which Ivar Hopman rode. After admitting having little training and not intending to ride, Ivar rode a strong race and finished with the main bunch. So a busy day of racing was concluded.
