Shanks wins gold on first night

BARRY HARCOURT/Southland Times

JUST DID IT: Invercargill's Eddie Dawkins celebrates after his New Zealand team beat Australia in the Team Sprint event at last night's Oceania Games session at the ILT Velodrome.

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World pursuit champion Alison Shanks made a winning return to the track as she took gold on the opening night of the Oceania championships last night.

Racing in the rainbow jersey for the first time, Shanks passed Ashburton's Lauren Ellis in the 3000m final as she looks ahead to next week's World Cup meet in Melbourne.

"The first half of the race I just wanted to ride my own race again. It was great having Lauren there as a bit of a carrot.

"When I stepped out to try and pass her she wasn't giving up and it was a real fight to get past her."

Rushlee Buchanan (Waikato/Bay of Plenty) beat Auckland's Kaytee Boyd for third place.

West Coast North Island rider Jesse Sergent was too strong for Peter Latham in the 4000m men's final.

It was a pleasing result for Sergent, who battled through last week's Tour of Southland.

"My initial goal (last night) was to win and after that I was just going for a time," Sergent said.

"I felt a lot better tonight than I did this morning, every bit of recovery counts coming off that tour. Hopefully by the time we hit Melbourne we will all be fully recovered."

Invercargill's Eddie Dawkins was part of the New Zealand team sprint squad along with Andrew Williams and Simon van Velthooven which beat an Australian combination.

Dawkins will feature again tonight when he contests his specialty 1000m time trial event.

Meanwhile, Hayden Roulston is recovering well from injuries sustained during the opening day of the Tour of Southland.

The defending champion limped out of the PowerNet-sponsored race with knee and shoulder injuries after being involved in a crash during the wind-blown second stage from Invercargill to Bluff Hill.

Treatment in Christchurch had revealed no significant damage.

"I am focused on a good recovery to refresh the mind and body and I am enjoying time with the family doing things away from riding the bike before getting back into things," Roulston said.

Roulston hopes to get back into serious training this month and plans to ride the 160km Classic race around Lake Taupo on November 28, part of the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge event.

He leaves in the second week of December for a two-week training camp with his new Columbia HTC road team in the Canary Islands before returning home to ride the elite road nationals in Christchurch on January 10.

Roulston's first appearance for Columbia will be in the Tour Down Under in Adelaide January 17 to 24.

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