The light rain cleared long enough for the mild conditions to dry the track and we were left with a heavily overcast sky and a light Southerly breeze. The track was looking her best with Albert James of the Manawatu District council arranging for the lines to be repainted and club supporters Ian Gray, Greg Bryan and Darren Humphreys investing 8 man hours on Sunday cutting back the grass edges to expose the full track for the safety of the riders. The feature of the night was to be the Club Championships for the 500 metre standing start time trial, the cool track and moist air were not ideal but the absence of a strong wind was welcomed. The stellar performance of the night was the unofficial equalling of a New Zealand record to Megan Blatchford in the Womans Masters 3 category. Megans time of 40.32 seconds was 2 seconds faster than the old track record. It is heartening to think that a humble outdoor, asphalt provincial track like Feilding when mixed with a world class athlete like Megan can produce an international quality result.
We had 25 riders roll up including two new riders. While the programme was dominated by the individual time trials we did have a couple of scratch and handicap races for each of the grades, the feature was the 18 lap A & B grade handicap race with 17 riders presented to the starter. This race proved to have the most pace of any race held on the track for a number of years thanks to all riders competing at capacity and working well within their respective bunches, this made scratchman, Matui Kahau’s victory all the more remarkable. Matui gave the next group a 70 metre head start over the 15 lap journey, this group contained Sean Whitehouse, Steve Stannard and Jaycob Humphreys. Matui went for it from the gun but the next group was not going to surrender without a fight. After 3 laps of full effort from Matui the gap had increased and he began to show signs of wilting but he didn’t give it away. At around lap 5 he started to eat into the handicap. At lap 8 Matui joined the main bunch and took the opportunity to take stock and catch his breath for a moment before he moved through the bunch and past still in pursuit of the next bunch which had been working well together negotiating traffic and wearing away at Matui’s resistance. Matui caught them with 5 laps to go and sat on them to rest and roll through with them. Matui found himself on the front with 3 laps to go and took the opportunity to put the hurt on the group, at this point the big efforts put in by Sean caught up and he drifted off the bunch but thanks to his earlier efforts was still able to cruise in for fourth. Jaycob fought to keep Matui’s wheel and Steve showed them all how the old bull does it by sitting on. On the final bend the finish was to be complicated by the laping of the main bunch and so a crowded finish line but Matui controlled the finish as he had controlled the race to win from Steve who had rolled Jaycob for second.
The spectators enjoyed a world class NZ record equalling performance from Megan and washed it down with an all action fast paced competitive handicap race performed by hardworking skilled and fit athletes.
The last meeting for 2010 will be held on 21st of December this will be the Christmas meeting with prizes!!
The first meeting of 2011 will be the 4th of January.
These are the results:
Rider of the night as selected by Ian Gray was Megan Blatchford because of her class effort in unofficially equalling the New Zealand Womans Masters 3 time of 40.32 seconds for the 500m TT. A number of riders put in bold bids for the prize but only one can be awarded.
Under 15’s and Under 17 girls 6 laps
1st Kate Stewart
2nd Bradley Nelson
3rd Campbell Stewart
4th Liam Barber
B Grade 6 laps
1st Cameron Gibbons
2nd Mike McMinn
3rd James Hutton
4th Damian Lardner
A Grade 6 laps
1st Matui Kaihau
2nd Jaycob Humphreys
3rd Sean Whitehouse
4th Megan Blatchford
Club Championship 500 metre standing time trials
Womans masters 3
Megan Blatchford 40.32 seconds
Equal NZ masters 3 and track record
Under 15 girls
Elizabeth Stannard
48.64
Under 15 boys
Robert Stannard 48.64 3rd
Liam Barber 45.47 2nd
Campbell Stewart 43.89 1st
Under 17 girls
Ruby Perry 45.36 2nd
Kate Stewart 43.07 1st
Under 17 boys
Andrew Bengston 46.98
Mike McMinn 43.21
James Hutton 41.66
George Roberts 41.63 3rd
Jonty Hapeta 41.19 2nd
Cameron Gibbons 40.94 1st
Under 19 Women
Rachel Southee 45.55 2nd
Kelsi Eccles 43.50 1st
Under 19 Men
Bradley Nelson 44.14
Damian Lardner 41.49 3rd
Jaycob Humphreys 39.54 2nd
Matui Kaihau 37.86 1st
Masters Men
Andy Ward 53.40
Peter Wenborn 43.65 3rd
Steve Stannard 41.03 2nd
Shaun Matena 40.58 1st
Under 15 and under 17 girls 10 lap handicap race
1st Liam Barber
2nd Robert Stannard
3rd Elizabeth Stannard
4th Campbell Stewart
A and B Grade 18 lap handicap race
1st Matui Kaihau
2nd Steve Stannard
3rd Jaycob Humphreys
4th Sean Whitehouse