22 March 10.40am
Para cyclist Devon Briggs, 20, of Cambridge has won the men’s C3 omnium 200m flying start at the Para Cycling Track World Championships in Brazel in a world record time of 10.919 seconds.
21 March 3pm
Cambridge Connections extended
Susan O’Regan
The deadline for submissions to the Cambridge Connections project has been extended to 5pm on April 26, Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan announced today.
The council had heard and understood residents’ concerns about limiting feedback to only the emerging preferred option.
“We understand our community’s desire to give feedback on all of the options and so from today we will actively be seeking feedback on what the community likes and doesn’t like about all them,” she said.
See: Bridge a ‘bolt out of the blue’
See: Put it there! Corridor for third bridge revealed
Work on hold
21 March 1.30pm
Archaeological features have been discovered as part of the ground clearing work at the top of the Waikato riverbank where Waipā District Council has been constructing an outfall structure in the C3 growth cell.
The work was being done to start the foundations for the outfall structure and culverts.
A council spokesperson said the features are fence posts and fire pits but they are being investigated further.
Iwi and Heritage New Zealand have been notified.
Work is now on hold until the council gets the appropriate authority to recommence work.
Medal winners
Cambridge paralympians Nicole Murray and Anna Taylor were in the medials at the Para Cycling track world championship in Rio de Janeiro today.
Murray raced the first final of the team in the Women’s C5 500m Time Trial and claimed bronze while Taylor soon followed this up with silver in the women’s C4 500m time trial.
Nick Blincoe of Cambridge and Tauranga’s Ben Westenberg kicked off their champs in strong form; both qualifying for the Men’s C4 Scratch Race, as well as delivering 8th and 9th place finishes respectively in the Omnium – 200m Flying Start.
Blincoe and Westenberg proceed to the 4km Individual Pursuit tomorrow morning.
20 March 4.30pm – Artefacts found
Work has stopped on the stormwater outfall in the C3 growth cell south of Cambridge Road between Te Awa Retirement Village and St Peter’s School after workers found historic artefacts. Waipā group manager Dawn Inglis said posts, organic matter and fire pits were found last week. Other items had been found on site some time before those.
Council says sorry
Waipā council has apologised to residents in the area where maps show a third Cambridge bridge could go over the Waikato River. In a letter drop to the hundreds of householders in an area including Bryce, Grey, upper Duke, Queen and Alpha streets, MacKenzie Place, Dallinger and Wallace courts and Haworth Ave up to Hamilton Road in the north, Transport manager Bryan Hudson said the council had intended to notify residents before details appeared in The News. “We apologise unreservedly that this did not happen.” A public information session will be held on March 21 to discuss the proposal further.
Sisterly time
Speakers and attendees at the Global Cities NZ Conference 2024 in Blenheim. Photo: Anthony Phelps
Cambridge Community Board chair Jo Davies-Colley presented at the Global Cities conference in Blenheim last week on the town’s unique sister city relationship with Le Quesnoy in France. New Zealand Memorial Museum Trust chair Sir Don McKinnon spoke about the Liberation Museum Te Arawhata in Le Quesnoy and the close ties with Cambridge which enabled it to successfully open last year. Cambridge was nominated for its 25-year relationship with Bihoro in Japan but lost out to Christchurch.
Para team to perform
Rio de Janeiro team: from left, Ben Westenberg (Tauranga), Nick Blincoe, Anna Taylor, Devon Briggs, Nicole Murray (all Cambridge). Photo: Paralympics New Zealand.
A power team of five – including four from Cambridge – New Zealand Para cyclists are poised to perform at the 2024 Para Cycling Track World Championships starting tomorrow (Thursday) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nick Blincoe, Devon Briggs, Anna Taylor and Nicole Murray along with Ben Westenberg originally of Tauranga but now studying at Waikato University, are competing at the first track event of the Paralympic year. The event is also one of the final opportunities to secure all-important qualification points for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (Aug-Sep 2024).
Murray and Taylor are favourites, having been crowned Omnium world champions at the last edition. Murray was also named the world’s best Female Summer Athlete in the 2023 PARA SPORT Awards, making her the C5 cyclist to beat.
Blincoe will have a packed schedule at the event, competing alongside fellow C4 Para athlete Westenberg, 18, who made his debut in the 2023 World Championships, bringing home a silver and a bronze medal.
Multiple World Championships medallist Devon Briggs (C3) will be looking to build on last year’s four medals. Just days too young to compete in Tokyo 2020, Briggs will be hungry to show he’s got what it takes to go to Paris.
Waterski action
Vicky Wilson, wife of former club president Nigel Wilson, is looking forward to competing in the upcoming tournament. Photo: Viv Posselt
Some great skiing action will be at the New Zealand Water Ski Nationals at Piarere Water Ski Club from March 26-31. Hundreds of people are expected to attend the nationals, which are held here every six years or so. Spectators can enter free of charge to view the 109 competitors, aged from around 9 to 70 plus, in action. Piarere is considered one of the country’s best courses for spectators.
Business bites
Tammee Wilson has become the new chair of the Cambridge Business Chamber taking the place of Jim Goddin who did several years in the role. Goddin will stay on the board to ensure a seamless transition.
Darts places
Cambridge’s Nikki Roberts and Kerin Frost’s debut in the North Island darts championship recently saw them finish ninth equal in the pairs. Bradley Cook and Ian Mackuch made the last 16 of the consolation pairs while Andy Watkins and Cook made it to the last 64 in the singles.
Equestrian talk
The theme of the conference was ‘A Good Life for Horses”
Cambridge hosted some of the world’s most renown equestrian scientists at the International Society for Equitation Science’s conference at the Don Rowlands Centre at Karāpiro. The 160 delegates were also treated to a day of site visits to Cambridge Stud, Riding for the Disabled, Pike Racing Stables, Takapoto showjumping stables and Eventstars. The theme of the conference was ‘A Good Life for Horses” and the programme included topics such as the equipment being used, detecting positive equine emotions, racehorses in their second careers, and safe, effective and ethical horse-human interactions.
Hunting open
Fish & Game has announced that game bird hunting licences for the 2024 season started on May 4 are now on sale. Hunters can secure their licence – which they must have to participate in game bird hunting – online via the Fish & Game website or at selected retailers nationwide. Around 40,000 licences are sold each year, however, those who hunt on their own land do not need to purchase a licence but must abide by the regulations such as bag limits and hunting hours.
Transformer gone
Transformer gone.
Waipā Networks has replaced its network’s final two-pole transformer structure. The Te Awamutu transformer on Mandeno Street was the last two-pole transformer structure on Waipā Networks’ network to be replaced, marking the end of an 18-year project to replace the poles.
