New Zealand cyclists claimed two medals on the final night to complete a four-medal haul at the UCI Track World Cup in Malaysia.
It completed an excellent haul of seven medals over two World Cup competitions in Hong Kong and Malaysia, with New Zealand pushing near the top of the UCI World Cup standings across their key events.
There were a silver and bronze medals earned on the final night, with Samantha Donnelly claiming her first individual World Cup medal with third placing in the women’s four-race Omnium. That was matched by an impressive performance from George Jackson and Tom Sexton who combined to earn a silver medal in the demanding two-rider madison competition over 200 laps (50kms).
Cycling New Zealand High Performance Director, Ryan Hollows was impressed with the strong showing, especially with a number of new groupings in Malaysia.
“It was a great campaign, with some new team combinations and new athletes competing strongly at a World Cup level,” said Hollows.
“We are happy with the team’s performances over the last two weeks as we build towards the upcoming Commonwealth Games and UCI Track World Championship in October.”
Donnelly enjoyed an impressive ride in her first World Cup omnium, starting with ninth in the scratch race and 10th in the tempo race before a strong effort for sixth in the elimination, to place seventh overall after three of the four events.
The Christchurch rider produced a superb display in the final gruelling points race, to be the top points scorer with 28 which moved her into medal contention after she lapped the field. Having collected the 20 bonus points, she then won the third to last sprint and was second in the penultimate sprint to jump to third overall behind winner Anita Stenberg (NOR) and Lorena Wiebes (NED).
“I had a bit of a rough start in Hong Kong and not sure where my form would be but I have progressed through the two weeks quite nicely,” said Donnelly.
“We took each race as individual races. I really enjoyed the scratch race; I made the right move in the tempo, and the elimination is my favourite race. From there I was able to have a bit of fun in the points race. I was super-pleased with the podium.”
Jackson and Sexton were superb in the challenging madison, the two-rider event with one rider “in-play” at all times, swapping with a hand-sling action.
The kiwis scored points in 10 of the 20 sprints, with four first-placings including the final double-points sprint to move them to second behind Netherlands.
“It was a really fast race. We opened it up and got some early sprint points,” said Jackson. “It turned into a race of taking laps – everyone did solo time trial attacks and we were pretty happy to take the second place.”
Earlier Sam Dakin was edged out on the first round of the individual sprint while fellow sprinter Olivia King missed out in the keirin repechage.
The team return home today and after a short break with begin preparations for the Commonwealth Games.
