It proved a positive and busy session for New Zealand riders on day three of the UCI Junior Track World Championships in the Netherlands today.
Kiwi riders qualified and contested three finals with some excellent performances at the Apeldoorn Velodrome.
Cambridge sprinter Alex Schuler impressed to force his way through to tomorrow’s quarterfinals in the individual sprint.
Schuler and Hamilton’s Flynn Underwood both qualified in 10.404s and 10.703s respectively in the 200m sprint qualifying.
Underwood was edged by Great Britain rider Kristian Larigo in the first round but Schuler beat Malaysia’s Muhannad Ali Badrun. The Cambridge rider then pipped Po Le Ng from Hong Kong-China, the sixth-ranked qualifier, by 0.03s in the second round.
He progresses to the quarterfinals tomorrow.
“Both qualifying times were solid given it was slow conditions today and this is a slow track,” said head coach Callum Saunders. “Alex showed plenty of fight so he will look forward to the quarterfinals and hopefully beyond tomorrow.”
Dunedin’s Joshua Grieve featured strongly to finish 11th in the final of the Points race after winning the penultimate sprint to finish fourth in qualifying. In the final he worked hard to finish 11th overall.
“Joshua featured well in qualifying and injected some good pace in the final but was not quite able to capitalise in his sprint but he showed plenty of promise,” said Saunders.
“He has the omnium tomorrow and madison on the day after, so this experience will stand him well for those races to come.”
Auckland’s Hunter Dalton was just off his personal best with a 3:20.607 effort in qualifying in the individual pursuit.
“It was a solid result for Hunter given the conditions today.”
Christchurch 17-year-old Sophie Maxwell finished 11th in the four-event omnium competition.
Maxwell was 10th in the opening scratch race and 10th in the Tempo. She placed 16th in the demanding elimination race and finished with 13th in the Points race to placed 11th overall.
She was third among non-European nations.
“Sophie is an exciting racer who showed up strongly and injected pace into the bunch racing in her debut in an international omnium,” said Saunders. “We had a crash at one stage but recovered well and impressed us as she was always spicing things up and keeping the race alive in a very competitive field.”
Tomorrow’s penultimate day of racing includes the men’s omnium, sprint and scratch races along with the women’s kilo and individual pursuit.
Results: https://tracktiming.live/eventpage.php?EventId=25025