Weekly wrap: Cyclists and sailors firing ahead of huge home competitions

Cycling

The New Zealand cycling team has produced brilliance on the track to win seven medals at the UCI Track World Cup in Hong Kong.

The women’s team pursuit, men’s omnium and men’s keirin all took gold while the men’s team pursuit, women’s madison and men’s madison took silver. The men’s scratch race team rounded out the medals with a bronze.

The medal haul saw New Zealand finish top of the medal table at the competition.

“We went there to get ranking points in the key Olympic events and in the main we have exceeded expectations in that regard,” said Cycling New Zealand High Performance Director, Martin Barras.

All attention now shifts to New Zealand with the Avantidrome in Cambridge hosting the fourth stop in the Tissot UCI World Cup.

More than 500 riders and staff from 46 nations are competing and several teams have already arrived with competition starting on Friday.

“The riders coming into the competition this week in Cambridge now have their opportunity to show their abilities.”

Yachting

New Zealand’s sailors have won two medals at the Oceania Champs in Auckland.

Molly Meech and Alex Maloney took out first place in the 49er FX division, with Brazil placing second and the USA third in a field of 50 boats.

Meanwhile Peter Burling and Blair Tuke placed third in the 49er, behind Austria in first and Spain in second.

The sailors now turn their attentions to World Championships which are being held in the Hauraki gulf.

"It’s been a few months since we have had a high level competition so this has really helped us," Tuke said.

"It’s nice to win the training event but we really see it as training and getting used to racing again and the race courses," Meech said. "The big one is now so we’ll be refocusing on that.

"We can see we are going alright in the fleet and some of our routines, like starting, are coming along nicely. It’s a bit of a confidence booster going into worlds."

Trampoline

Rangiora athlete Bronwyn Dibb took the silver medal at the 2019 Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships, held at the impressive Ariake Stadium where Tokyo 2020 Gymnastics events will be taking place. 

Dibb was just 0.2 points off gold in the Women’s Double-Mini Trampoline final.

The 22-year-old double-mini and trampoline athlete is no stranger to international competition, having competed at every World Championships since she was age eligible in 2015.  Before then she competed at two World Age Group Championships, winning a silver medal in 2014. 

“I’m just so glad after all that I’ve been through, to be on the world stage and performing to the best I can. Standing up on the stage during the medal ceremony was just amazing – absolutely unbelievable,” Dibb said.

Surfing

Billy Stairmand and Paige Hareb have been in action in Hawaii.

Stairmand has surfed well to advance to round four in the Vans World Cup of Surfing.

Hareb lost her round of 16 heat against Sally Fitzgibbons to finish in 9th place at the Maui Pro.

Skiing

Following time off snow to rehab a knee injury, NZ ski racer Alice Robinson (Queenstown) was back in the start gates for the Killington Cup Giant Slalom but recorded a DNF on the first run.

“I had a great day of training yesterday and I felt really good this morning during warm up,” explained Alice, “but something didn’t go well on the race hill, I never felt connected with my skis. DNFs are part of ski racing. You can always learn from bad days and I will move forward in to the next one with good preparation.”

Piera Hudson (Havelock North) placed 44th on run one of today’s GS but in World Cup races only the 30 fastest racers from the first run of two qualify – or ‘make the flip’-for run two.

“Even though I missed qualifying today, I’m still happy with sections of my skiing,” said Piera. “I had some good splits and my GS feels like it’s on a good path but now I’m looking towards tomorrow’s Slalom and hopefully bettering last year’s result.”