Former rower Sonia Waddell continued her good form at the national track cycling championships in Invercargill today, as her Waikato-Bay of Plenty team qualified fastest in the women's team pursuit.
Waikato Bay of Plenty clocked three minutes 32.404 seconds, over six seconds faster than second-placed Southland, who they will meet later in the final.
The women's team pursuit is a new event on the world scene and teams consist of three riders as opposed to four in men's team pursuit.
Waddell, who took up cycling just months ago and is coached by Olympic gold medallist Sarah Ulmer, finished sixth in the individual pursuit on Wednesday in her first ever track nationals.
The New Zealand selectors will be watching the finals closely, with spots up for grabs in the national team pursuit line-up for the UCI world championships in Poland later this month.
The New Zealand team has already had success at World Cup level, with Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis and Kaytee Boyd winning gold in Beijing earlier this year.
In the other events this morning, Canterbury qualified fastest for the women's 500m team sprint final, while Auckland qualified fastest in the men's 750m team sprint final.
Results from the morning session of the fifth day of the national track cycling championships in Invercargill today:
Women's 3000m team pursuit qualifying:
Waikato (Rushlee Buchanan, Jamie Neilson, Sonia Waddell) 3:32.404 1, Southland (Dale Tye, Sequoia Cooper, Cathy Jordan) 3:38.931 2, West Coast North Island (Brei Gudsell, Gemma Dudley, Kerri-Anne Torckler) 3:42.318 3, Auckland (Marina Duvnjak, Ashleigh James, Kaytee Boyd) 3:44.105 4.
Open women 500m team sprint qualifying: Canterbury (Natasha Hansen, Elizabeth Steel) 36.597 1, Auckland JU19#1 (Claire Routledge, Henrietta Mitchell) 37.378 2, Otago (Honor Davies, Charlotte Kelly) 37.424 3, Wellington (Hannah Latta, Hayley Giddens) 38.730 4.
Elite men 750 team sprint qualifying:
Auckland 1 (Andrew Williams, Myron Simpson, Damien Wiseman) 47.036 1, Canterbury (Hayden Godfrey, Adam Stewart, Sam Steele) 47.612 2, Southland (Eddie Dawkins, Hamish Presbury, Ian Denise) 47.769 3, Auckland 2 (Ben Simpson, Jamie Bate, Jonathan Bass) 49.561 4.
