Kergozou and NZ pursuiters qualify in Jakarta

New Zealand’s team pursuit combinations made an excellent start to their international track cycling season with both female and male combinations topping qualifying at the UCI Nations Cup in Jakarta.

Three UCI Nations Cup competitions replace the previous world cup programmes, and are mandatory for nations seeking rankings to qualify for the world championships and ultimately, the Paris Olympics.

It was a voyage into the unknown for the Cycling New Zealand squads with new combinations and their first international competition since the Tokyo Olympics seven months ago.

The women’s combination of Michaela Drummond, Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha and Emily Shearman set the fastest time of 4:10.950 which was significantly faster that the remainder of the 14 teams.

Their time was nearly four seconds ahead of Great Britain followed by France and Australia, and was only 0.2s outside their New Zealand record set at the World Cup in Cambridge four years ago.

They were fastest throughout their ride, going through the opening 1000m in 1:07.8 and then riding on consistent 1:01 pace for each of the remaining 1000m splits.

“I am extremely happy, a great ride,” said women’s endurance coach Paul Manning. “It was a good test of our training at home. We have a few small tweaks to make for tomorrow.

“We aren’t seeing all the best line-ups here and so there’s plenty of reasons to keep our feet on the ground.”

The men’s combination of Nic Kergozou, Aaron Gate, Campbell Stewart and George Jackson clocked a strong 3:50.382 in their qualifying run, which was a fraction faster than Denmark, the Olympic finalists and more than two seconds ahead of Australia and Great Britain.

The times were similar to those at the recent European Championships, with the kiwis locked on similar timings to Denmark, going through the opening 1000m in 1:02, and settling on 56sec for next two kilos, and closing fastest at 55s to be half a second quicker than the Danes.

Australia was third fastest and Great Britain fourth fastest, over two seconds back.

Tomorrow the women meet Great Britain, while the men take on Denmark, with the respective winners going directly to the gold medal ride.

The fastest of the two losing teams and the other first round match-ups will contest for the bronze medal.

Other action tomorrow includes the women’s team sprint competition while Wollaston and Jackson will also ride the respective elimination races.

Results, day 1:

Women 4000m team pursuit qualifying: New Zealand (Mihaela Drummond, Ally Wollaston, Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman) 4:10.950, 1; Great Britain at 3.779s, 2; France at 4.086, 3; Australia at 4.490, 4.

Men 4000m team pursuit qualifying: New Zealand (Nic Kergozou, Aaron Gate, Campbell Stewart, George Jackson) 3:50.382, 1; Denmark at 0.54s, 2; Australia at 2.534, 3; Great Britain at 2.958, 4.