Girl power was to the fore with victories to New Zealand stars Ellesse Andrews and Bryony Botha on the second day of the Oceania track championships in Brisbane on Saturday.
Andrews won the sprint title and Botha won the individual pursuit final.
They were events in which both riders won gold medals at last year’s Commonwealth Games.
There were strong performances by the New Zealand junior men.
Southland’s Marshall Erwood claimed titles in the elimination and scratch races.
Andrews topped qualifiers in the women’s sprint with a time of 10.732 sec. Team-mate Olivia King was fourth in 11.049 sec.
Andrews and King won their first round match races, and their quarterfinal showdowns in two rides in the best-of-three format.
It drew the two New Zealanders together in the semifinal, won in two rides by Andrews over King, who later lost out in the bronze-medal ride against Australian Breanna Hargrave.
Andrews was too strong and classy for Australia’s Kristina Clonan, winning in two straight rides for the gold medal.
New Zealand dominated the women’s 3000m individual pursuit qualifying, headed by Commonwealth record-holder Botha in 3min 20.142sec. She was followed by team-mates Emily Shearman in 3 min 26.211 sec and newcomer Sami Donnelly in 3 min 31.471 sec.
Botha was impressive in the final, clocking 3 min 21.425 sec to beat Shearman for the gold by nearly 7 sec, while Donnelly, in a strong performance, was edged out in the battle for the bronze medal by Australia’s Claudia Marcks by just 0.3 sec.
Commonwealth Games medallist Tom Sexton topped qualifiers in the men’s 4000m individual pursuit in 4 min 11.723 sec, and Keegan Hornblow was third-fastest in 4 min 16.579 sec.
Hornblow won the bronze medal in a classy 4 min 14.774sec, while Australia’s James Moriarty got up over Sexton in the men’s final with a world-class 4 min 9.955 sec winning time.
Callum Saunders was the best of the New Zealand qualifiers in the elite men’s sprint with a personal best 9.848 sec on a super-fast Anna Mears Velodrome.
Qualifying was headed by Australia’s Matthew Richardson in 9.547 sec.
Saunders and Sam Dakin won through the first round of match-racing, but both were beaten in the second round.
In junior under-19 racing, the Kiwi males dominated in the elimination race in which the last rider goes out in sprints every two laps.
Erwood won the final sprint over Otago cyclist James Gardner to claim the title with Maui Morrison fourth and Magnus Jamieson fifth.
Erwood did not stop there, claiming the sprint finish to win the junior men’s scratch race over 10 km ahead of team-mate Austin Norwell. There were seven New Zealand riders in the top 10.
Georgia Simpson was the best of the Kiwis in fifth place in the junior women’s elimination race.
— Staff reporter
