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| South Africa arrive for Junior Worlds |
16 sleeps until the start of the 2012
UCI Juniors Track World Championships.
Entry numbers continue to rise with some
countries coming out of the woodwork late to line up at the start line in a
little over a fortnight. Last count was north of 160 riders and 24 countries.
The Netherlands, Japan and Mexico (who will field one of the largest squads
with 15 riders) are the latest to confirm attendance over the past week.
The first of our squads arrived this
past week with South Africa touching down for their four week long stay. They
haven't wasted any time in getting down to business, spending quality time on
the track and the road including mixing with the locals in our Saturday Club
Road race at Mabel Bush on Saturday. They may not harbour hopes of world
titles, but we'll be doing everything we can to make sure it is a trip none of them
will forget anytime soon.
This week has also seen the continuation
of our Secondary Schools’ Roller Racing. Central Southland College and Verdon
College both showed impressive form this week and it was great to share the fun
with our outstanding sponsor at SIT's Re-Orientation as well.
If the Olympics have inspired you and
you are in Years 9 to 13, come along to the Velodrome at 4pm on Tuesday and
have a crack for a chance to take part in our Ultimate Ride-Off on the final
day of Junior Worlds. And for the slightly older wannabe, we start our Pub
Challenges this week visiting the Eastern Suburbs Tavern on Wednesday and Big
Willy's on Thursday. Our mates at the ILT have put up $500 in prizes for each
night.
In between the inevitable last minute preparations,
there has been this quite large sporting event going on in London in the
background. Thankfully, sleep isn’t important because it’s been very hard to
pull yourself away from the giggle box at some ungodly hour of the morning.
The last couple of nights have been particularly
taxing, trying to balance the end of the rowing and swimming with the start of
triathlon, track and field and, of course, the track cycling. It’s been a mixed
bag for the Kiwis on the London Velodrome, headlined by the bronze medal for
the Men’s Team Pursuit and the fifth place finish for Eddie Dawkins and the Men’s
Team Sprint. Both Eddie and Natasha Hansen (who was back in business overnight
in the Women’s Sprint) have looked right at home amongst the elite competition
and that’s a great sign for the next Olympic cycle.
It’s hard not to watch in awe at what the
Brits have achieved. After winning seven golds and eleven cycling medals at
Beijing four years ago, they have the chance to medal in nine of the ten
disciplines at home this year. But, I know of at least two Southlanders who
will already be focusing on re-dressing that balance a little in Rio in four
years time.
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