Tasman team take bronze

Story by: - Photo by: shuttersport

The Tasman track cycling team finished the 2012 Rabo Direct New Zealand age-group nationals in Invercargill on a high on Saturday, claiming a bronze medal in the men's under-19 team sprint.

The team of Kristoff Ford, Daniel Ellison (both Nelson), and Callum Saunders (Marlborough) won the 750m sprint after getting past Auckland in the race for third and fourth spot.

Their time of 48.830sec was over a second quicker than their rivals, having been third fastest qualifiers in the Saturday morning qualifying session.

Southland won the event, but were disqualified due to an early change, giving Canterbury the win.

Ford was seventh in the kilo and the individual pursuit.

Another rider from the Nelson side of the hill, Cameron Ford, also took a bronze medal on Friday, in the under-17 boys 500m time trial. He recorded a time of 35.050sec, just over half a second quicker than the fourth place-getter.

In the same event, Marlborough rider Quinn Karwowski claimed the team's only gold and set a new national record, breaking the old one by almost a second. Karwowski also won a bronze in the under-17 boys' sprint, while Ford was also fourth in the individual pursuit and fifth in the sprint.

Earlier in the week, Michaela Kerr won bronze in the under-15 girls time trial.

A number of riders also made finals, including Ellison in the final event of the meet – the under-19 points race. In what was a very strong field over 80km, he finished seventh.

He also finished sixth in the kilo.Ellison and Saunders were just out of the medals in the under-19 keirin, coming fourth and fifth respectively.

Michaela Kerr and Georgia Cowman made the final of the under-15 girls' points race, with the latter putting in a gritty effort to make the final after being caught up in a crash.

Marcus Jones also made the final of the under-15 boys' point race.

Liam Julian, Olivia Miller, Bailey Ford, Britany Kerr and Shaane Fulton also rode very well, achieving personal bests in their events gaining valuable experience.

 

Note: headline image is Kristoff Ford (2011) from Shuttersport's library