Age Groups, Aussie Masters and Olympic Solidarity Course

More good times as a coach.

With a very short time to catch my breath it was back up to Cambridge for Age Group Nationals and an even larger Canterbury Team and more riders that I personally coach. I was the U17 girls teams coach and the riders had been putting in some awesome racing all season long so I was really looking forward to seeing them in action.

Team Canterbury

Sadly Jessie Banks was out with Glandular Fever and at the last minute Christine Lambley had to withdraw after a nasty crash at Denton Park.

The racing over the 5 days was awesome with some standout rides and a full set of National records from Ellesse Andrews of Southland. In NZ U17s have gone to a 7.0m rollout from 6.61m so would have been interesting to see how some would have fared on the smaller gear.

Jackson Ogle set a new U17 boys flying 200m record. He went on to take Bronze in his first ever indoor sprint championships and took Silver in the Team Sprint.

Jackson Ogle on the way to a NZ Record!

Samantha Jones had an awesome week winning Silver in the 500m TT, Keirin and Teams Sprint pairing with Michelle Petersen.

Samantha Silver in the Keirin

Shona McGrath was double Bronze in the M2 Scratch and pairing with Lyndal Donnelly in the Teams Sprint.

Shona 2 x Bronze and unofficial M3 Champ in Everything!

Our U17 girls rode their hearts out and while medals proved elusive Sammi Ogle was 4th in the Points Race and 5th in the Sprints. The Canterbury Team of Sammi and Olivia Reiber were 4th in the Team Sprint and these two combined with Jessica Ownsworth and Aleisha Scott to take 4th in the Teams Pursuit.

U17 Girls Teams Sprint

U17 Girls Teams Pursuit

At the Australian Masters Nationals Hamish Wright was in fine form in the M2 Grade with 4th in the Kilo, Silver in the Scratch Race and Gold in the Sprints.

Hamish Wright Aussie M2 Sprint Champion

After the Nationals that finished on a real high it was on to an Olympic Solidarity Course in Cambridge that was 7 days and covered both coaching and coach development. Sessions went from 9am through to 8pm some days and covered many new theories and opportunities to practice under the eye of course facilitator Andrew Gillot from UCI.

So a huge two weeks with much learned and leaving me very inspired to get out and do more as a coach.