The night started with an at times stiff Norwest wind and overcast sky but as the racing heated up the weather gods cooperated and the wind eased off and the sky cleared to allow all to enjoy another mild relatively still night.
While we did not have an Olympian or a Commonwealth games medallist tonight we did have the newly crowned Manawatu Masters Sportsperson of the year in Megan Blatchford in attendance. The club also wishes Matiu Kaihau all the very best for his first foray into the international track cycling scene when he represents New Zealand in the Oceania Track championships in Adelaide next week. While Matiu’s only presence at the track so far this year has been as a spectator when he was out on a training ride, we have all been witness to his development over the years as a result of his hard work and dedication to be the best he can be. The entire Kaihau family have been significant contributors to the sport and we look forward to their presence at future track nights.
We had another good turn out of 23 riders with a few being new for the season but not new to the track and still we had riders away, so we certainly do have a solid core of riders and potential to move into the 30 plus category.
The racing started with graded warm up races of 4 to 5 laps then all riders were placed in 3 to 4 rider pursuit teams for the purpose of practicing the skill of rolling through in formation and to work as a team. The next phase was to time every rider over one lap and then finished the night off with a hybrid C grade 10 lap handicap then an A and B grade 16 lap handicap.
These are the results:
Rider of the night was Campbell Stewart. In the handicap race he managed to make the most of his almost one lap handicap by catching the scratch bunch early and staying with them to the finish.
A Grade 4 lap scratch
1st Jaycob Humphreys
2nd Josh Chard
3rd Mike Rowe
4th Ross Castle
B Grade 5 lap mass start
1st Megan Blatchford
2nd Lachie Ferguson
3rd Barry Gilliland
4th Cameron Gibbons
Under 17 boys and girls 5 lap mass start
1st Jordan Castle
2nd Joshua Kendall
3rd Campbell Srewart
4th Kate Stewart
Team Pursuits
Jaycob Humphreys 2.12 sec
Josh Chard
Mike Rowe
Jonty Hapeta 2.14 sec
James Hutton
Jordan Castle
Joshua Kendall
Brent Zimmerman 2.17 sec
Cameron Gibbons
Richard Mills
George Roberts
Barry Gilliland 2.21 sec
Megan Blatchford
Lachie Ferguson
Ross Castle
Campbell Stewart 2.25 sec
Andrew Bengston
Takumi Clarke
Peter Wenborn
Kate Stewart 2.30 sec
Ruby Perry
Liam Barber
Kelsi Eccles
1 Lap time trial
Josh Chard 31.66
Jaycob Humphreys 31.83
Brent Zimmerman 32.54
Jonty Hapeta 32.69
Joshua Kendall 32.91
Jordan Castle 33.20
Richard Mill 33.25
Lachie Ferguson 33.58
James Hutton 33.75
Ross Castle 34.08
George Roberts 34.58
Kate Stewart 35.09
Peter Wenborn 35.32
Takumi Clarke 35.66
Cameron Gibbons 35.89
Barry Gilliland 35.98
Campbell Stewart 36.61
Ruby Perry 37.16
Andrew Bengston 37.39
Kelsi Eccles 37.98
Liam Barber 37.98
C grade 10 lap handicap race
1st Campbell Stewart
2nd Ruby Perry
3rd Kelsi Eccles
4th Kate Stewart
5th Jordan Castle
6th Andrew Bengston
A and B Grade 16 lap handicap race
1st Josh Chard
2nd Jaycob Humphreys
3rd George Roberts
4th Cameron Gibbons
5th Jonty Hapeta