Cycling: Gold medal for NZ sprinters

Invercargill’s Emma Cumming (left) and Wanaka’s Ellesse Andrews stand on the victory podium after...
Invercargill’s Emma Cumming (left) and Wanaka’s Ellesse Andrews stand on the victory podium after winning gold in the women’s team sprint at the UCI Juniors Track Cycling World Championships in Switzerland. Photo by Guy Swarbrick.

Like father, like daughter.

Ellesse Andrews, daughter of former New Zealand Olympian Jon Andrews, has teamed up with Emma Cumming to win the women's team sprint in the first medal event of the UCI Juniors Track Cycling World Championships in Switzerland.

Andrews (Wanaka) and Cumming (Invercargill) - both now based at Cycling New Zealand's training centre in Cambridge - claimed the final with an impressive ride against top qualifier Italy.

The pair were second-fastest in qualifying with a time of 28.304sec for the two laps of the 200m track.

That was marginally slower than the Italians but, in the final, the New Zealanders were outstanding.

Andrews got the pair in front with a 16.428sec opening lap from a standing start.

Cumming then came storming home in 11.578sec for the pair to win by nearly 0.4sec.

China edged South Korea for the bronze medal.

Ellesse's dad, Jon, competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and won two bronze medals - the 1km time trial and sprint - at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland.

The family lived in Wanaka until Jon secured his "dream job'' as performance hub coach in Cambridge late last year. He is in Switzerland with Ellesse overseeing the New Zealand team.

It is the first female sprint gold medal won by New Zealand at the championships.

It is also fitting reward for Cumming who won the silver medal with Rio-bound Olympian Olivia Podmore last year.

New Zealand's burgeoning female team sprint talents have been on the rise.

Stephanie McKenzie and Henrietta Mitchell secured a silver medal in Italy in 2010, McKenzie and Paige Paterson gained bronze in Moscow the following year, Paterson and Liz Steel won silver in Invercargill in 2012 and Cumming and Podmore took silver last year.

Today's male and female team pursuit is looming as a transtasman battle.

The men's combination of Campbell Stewart, Jared Gray, Tom Sexton and Josh Scott was the top qualifier with a superb time of 4min 3.704sec.

That was 2sec quicker than Denmark with a further second to Great Britain and Australia.

The Kiwi quartet will take on Australia with the winner going on to ride for the gold medal later in the day.

The New Zealand female team of Michaela Drummond, Emily Shearman, Kate Smith and Nicole Shields qualified second, just 0.3sec behind top qualifier Italy with Australia third, more than 3sec behind, and Canada fourth fastest.

Like the boys, they will ride off against Australia with the winner progressing to the final.

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