Scully and Dawkins in elite NZ squads for World Cup

BY NATHAN BURDON

Southland's Tom Scully has been selected in the full New Zealand elite track squad for the first time ahead of the next round of the World Cup beginning in Australia on Thursday.

Scully impressed during the Oceania championships with the New Zealand development pursuit team and in the madison, to book his place for Melbourne.

He will be joined by fellow Southlander Eddie Dawkins, who will be part of a three-man sprint squad with Simon Van Velthooven and Adam Stewart.

Rushlee Buchanan and Joanne Kiesanowski have forced their selection for the first time in a women's squad, led by world champion Alison Shanks.

Meanwhile, windy conditions and an exacting course proved testing for the disappointing field that contested the Oceania road titles on a Gore-based circuit yesterday.

Southland's Matt Marshall had to settle for second place behind Australian Michael Matthews in the senior men's event, with Otago's Alex McGregor pipping Southland's Patrick Williamson for third place.

Australian Bridie O'Donnell cleared out early in the third of five laps to pummel the women's field. She was initially joined by Southland's Gabby Vermunt, but Vermunt could not maintain the pace.

Karen Fulton (Tasman) was second and Rochelle Gilmore (Australia) was third.

Otago's Brad Evans won the men's under-19 title.

On the final night of the Oceania track championships on Saturday the Beijing Olympic medal-winning team pursuit turned in a brilliant performance.

The quartet of Wes Gough, Sam Bewley, Marc Ryan and Jesse Sergent smashed the New Zealand record on the way to winning the men's 4000m team pursuit at the ILT Velodrome.

They clocked 3:58.689, more than a second faster than they achieved at the track at the national championships before the world championships earlier this year.

The women were not left behind, with a new combination, without world individual pursuit champion Shanks, also establishing a national record in winning the final of the 3000m team pursuit. The trio of Kaytee Boyd, Lauren Ellis and newcomer Buchanan clocked 3:26.658 to beat the New Zealand No2 combination.

Earlier, the Australian combination of Annette Edmondson and Emily Rosemond took out the women's team sprint ahead of the youthful Auckland pair of Henrietta Mitchell and Stephanie McKenzie, who broke the national under-19 record in the process.

Australia also won the under-19 team sprint and the under-19 4000m team pursuit.

Australian Joel Leonard held on to take out the elite men's keirin final, just holding out world junior champion Sam Webster and fellow Kiwi Simon Van Velthooven.

NZ TEAM

The BikeNZ team for the UCI World Cup in Melbourne is:

Men: Sam Bewley (Rotorua), Eddie Dawkins (Invercargill), Wes Gough (Waipukurau), Peter Latham (Te Awamutu), Marc Ryan (Timaru), Tom Scully (Invercargill), Jesse Sergent (Feilding), Adam Stewart (Canterbury), Simon Van Velthooven (Palmerston North).
Women: Kaytee Boyd (Auckland), Rushlee Buchanan (Te Awamutu), Lauren Ellis (Tinwald), Joanne Kiesanowski (Christchurch), Alison Shanks (Dunedin).

- © Fairfax NZ News