The Wanganui weather managed to hold off for the first night of racing with some exciting time trials and scratch races for Marist and Feilding riders.
Kate Stewart rode in her first ever track competition and won the U15 500m TT quite convincingly. Mark Findlay, Jaycob Humphries and Sean Whitehouse came 1st, 2nd & 3rd in the U17 500m TT and 2000m pursuit race. Matiu Kaihau won the U19 kilo TT with Josh Chard coming 4th and Sjoerd finishing 5th.
Jaycob rode strongly to win both U17 scratch races, with Sean and Mark coming 2nd and 3rd respectively in an exciting finish across the line. The senior men’s racing was fast and furious over the 32 lap scratch race with Matiu Kaihau finishing 1st in the U19 grade, Josh Chard 3rd and Sjoerd 4th.
The weather played havoc on Saturday so racing was delayed until Sunday, which just allowed the track to dry out enough for racing. Sprints, pursuits and points races were held with awesome results from all our riders.
Sean Whitehouse and Mark Findlay ended up riding for gold & silver in the Sprint final, which was the best of 3 sprints. After winning one race each the crowd then had to endure a nail-biting third race to sprint off for the gold medal. The cat and mouse excitement of sprint racing was held to the last lap when Sean just managed to sprint off Mark on the line to win gold! Jaycob Humphries and Vladimir Stewart from Wanganui then had to race off for 3rd and 4th in another exciting race in which Jaycob won the bronze medal.![clip_image002[7]](http://bikemanawatu.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/clip_image0027_9047e627535443f77ed3b0f65ec4f0cc.jpg "clip_image002[7]")
The U19 3000m (12 laps) pursuit was won by Matiu Kaihau in 3:44secs with Denay Cottam 2nd in 3:50secs and Josh Chard 3rd in 4:04secs. The Points race is always an awesome event with the U17 boys winner being Mark Findlay, 3rd Jaycob and 4th Sean Whitehouse.
The U19/Senior Mens/Masters points race was also an event to remember with Matiu and Matt Noble from Wanganui managing to break up the field and race off for points in the front of the field. Both riders ended up with a total of 39 points but with Matiu taking the last exciting sprint for the line he won the gold for his outstanding effort.
The WCNI Track team for nationals was then announced with U19 riders Matiu Kaihau and Josh Chard being selected from Marist. Jaycob Humphries, Sean Whitehouse & Mark Findlay were selected for the U17 grade and Kate Stewart was selected for the U15 girls. Congratulations to all the riders who attended and were selected for Track Nationals. There are a few riders who have elected not to join the WCNI team to go to Invercargill, but we wish all the other riders the very best to bring home the medals in March 2010!