Ellesse Andrews celebrates her gold medal with her mother Angela and father Jon. Photo – UCI.
Cambridge cyclists Ellesse Andrews and Jackson Ogle rounded off the New Zealand team’s medal tally with two spectacular medal-finishes during the last two days of the UCI Junior World Track Cycling Championships in Italy, August 23 – 27.
The first day of competition saw 17 year old Andrews join the junior women’s quartet on the Montichiari Velodrome, comprised of Nicole Shields (Southland), Kate Smith (Christchurch) and Emily Shearman (Palmerston North), to win the silver medal in the 4000m team pursuit.
The junior men’s pursuit team in action at Italy. Photo – Sandi Scott.
On day two of the competition, the junior men’s combination of Josh Scott (Christchurch), Corbin Strong (Invercargill), Aaron Wyllie (Auckland) and Harry Waine (Auckland) won the bronze medal in their team pursuit ride-off over France.
The junior women had two rides, producing a superb personal best 4:26.989 to be second fastest behind home favourites Italy (4:26.720) and put them into the final.
The junior women’s pursuit team in action. Photo – Sandi Scott.
The fourth day of the competition saw Andrews set a world record, claiming the gold medal in the junior women’s individual pursuit. Teammate Nicole Shields finished in fourth.
Andrews won the bronze medal in the individual pursuit at the world championships in Switzerland last year, though her main focus then was on the sprint race, where she won a rainbow jersey. Under the watchful eye of her father Jon, a former Commonwealth Games medallist and Olympian and now the national junior coach, Andrews has fully transitioned to endurance. She was part of the team pursuit that won the silver medal on the first day, and on the fourth day (Sunday NZ time) she earned her fourth world championship medal and her second rainbow jersey.
18 year old Ogle won a bronze medal in the junior men’s 1000m time trial on the 5th and final day of the competition.
Ogle clocked 1:02.756 to finish a second behind Russian winner Pavel Perchuk, and a fraction outside his New Zealand Championship-winning performance, with teammate Josh Scott (Christchurch) 20th.
