Southland Sport
Olympic medallists, world champions and the future stars of New Zealand track cycling will take centre stage in Invercargill this weekend starting today.
Invercargill hosts the VANTAGE Window and Doors Elite and U19 Track National Championships this week (February 2-5), with 74 elite riders, 59 under-19 riders, and five para-cyclists from around the country descending on the SIT Zero Fees Velodrome with their sole goal to go faster than their competitors.
Cycling Southland general manager Mark Hotton said the event was last held in Invercargill in 2014 and attracted large vocal crowds, which were expected to return again for four days of intense fast- paced action.
“This is going to be a fantastic event for spectators. We’ll have members of the current New Zealand team that competed at the Olympics in Rio last year, development riders vying for national selection as well as junior world track champions – such as Southlanders Bradly Knipe, Emma Cumming and Tom Sexton – starting to emerge.
“They’ll all be looking ahead to the World Cups and world championships this year, but this is also where their campaign begins for selection for the Commonwealth Games in Australia next year,” Hotton said.
“Add to the mix an emerging crop of incredibly talented under-19 riders – such as Southland’s Corbin Strong – and it’s going to be a stunning four days of racing.”
The event would provide the first opportunity for Southlanders to see home-grown hero Eddie Dawkins racing since he was part of the team sprint that won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
“We love to see Southlanders racing and beating the best riders in the country and it will be the perfect opportunity to see Eddie and his team mates (Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster) in action – only this time they’ll be racing against each other,” Hotton said. “They’re extremely competitive world-class cyclists so I’m sure they’ll be looking for any chance to get one up on each other. I’ve heard they’ve been tearing up the track in training and I’m sure Eddie will want to beat them in front of his fans.”
Hotton said there had been a resurgence in interest in cycling since the Olympics last year, and to capitalise on that, children aged 16 and under could go free to all sessions.
“We’ve had children turn up to our track start sessions wanting to ‘ride like Eddie’ so it’s great that they’ll get to see him in action,” he said.
Action starts on Thursday with time trial finals and U19 scratch races, while the sprinters get underway on Friday. Racing on Saturday gets intense with the finals of the Keirin, a race that uses a motorcycle to quickly pace riders up to more than 50kmh before they start racing, while on Sunday the team events – including the spectator-favourite Madison – round out a hectic event.
Session times are Thursday 10am and 6.30pm; Friday 10am and 6.30pm; Saturday 10am and 6.30pm; and Sunday 10am and 5pm.
Tickets are $5 for adults for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning sessions, with children free.
The evening sessions are $20 for adults, $15 for students and senior citizens, with children free.
On Sunday each session is $10.