Cycling New Zealand has announced an exciting 20-strong team to contest the under-19 competition at the Oceania Track Cycling Championships at Invercargill in October.

The team will be joined by the national elite team to take on the best from Australia and the Pacific in the four-day competition at the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome from 16-19 October.

The team comprises the best of the first-year New Zealand under-19 riders along with the country’s leading second-year under-17 riders, with eight of the team being members of the Subway Performance Hub programme.

Standout performers looking to add further Oceania titles to their palmares are Ella Wyllie from the Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Performance Hub, the current Oceania under-19 road champion, and Tyla Green, the reigning Oceania champion in the keirin, who has developed under the SIT Zero Fees Southern Performance Hub.

They will be joined by experienced riders Reuben Webster, Mya Anderson (both of the Grassroots Trust Waikato Bay of Plenty Performance Hub), Max Williams (Havelock North) and Erin Downie (Christchurch) who were all national team members at the Oceania Track Championships in Adelaide last October.

The recent Vantage Age Group Track National Championships also highlighted the rising talent in the under-17 age-group. In the endurance events Upper South Performance Hub member Jenna Borthwick won six national under-17 titles while Jack Carswell (Cambridge) won five titles. Sprinter Kaio Lart (Nelson) also shone, taking two titles and a national record in the 200m time trial.

There will be over 40 events across both elite and Under-19 categories at the championships.

The New Zealand team is:

Female: Charlotte Spurway (Christchurch), Ella Wyllie (Auckland), Erin Downie (Christchurch), Jessica Spencer (Invercargill),  Mya Anderson (Cambridge), Natalie Green (Winton), Prudence Fowler (Auckland), Tyla Green (Winton), Jenna Borthwick (Christchurch).

Male: Jack Carswell (Cambridge), Max Williams (Havelock North), Mitchel Fitzsimons (Timaru), Michiel van Heyningen (Christchurch), Navarh Brotherston (Invercargill), Reuben Webster (Cambridge), Ryan MacLeod (Christchurch), Zakk Patterson (Hamilton), Hamish Coltman (Cambridge), Kaio Lart (Nelson), Sebastian Lipp (Christchurch).

CAPTION: Tasman’s Kaio Lart, who won two national age titles recently, is part of the 20-strong junior New Zealand team to contest the Oceania Track Championships in Invercargill later this year. (Photo credit: Geoff Dickinson).