Ulmer aids Waddell in pursuit of sporting comeback

Former Olympics rower Sonia Waddell is among a stellar lineup of women's athletes joining the rush to try out BikeNZ's women's track programme.

World champions from other sports such as skater Nicole Begg, runner Kate McIlroy and mountainbike rider Vanessa Quin have thrown their muscles behind the Power to the Podium programme.

BikeNZ wants to unearth female athletes to form a talent pool through to the 2012 Olympics in London and beyond.

Waddell, Begg, McIlroy and Quin are among 20 who have made the cut to advance the the next phase of the selection process.

BikeNZ launched its talent search in September and received 100 applications, which also included one from champion kickboxer Karen Lynch of Auckland.

The aim is to at least equal in London the men's track team's achievement of securing two medals at the Beijing Olympics.

BikeNZ had particularly wanted to hear from athletes with an endurance background such as rowing, running and triathlon.

The response was highly edifying for national track coach Tim Carswell.

"They were quite a number of outstanding applications – we had world champions from different disciplines apply," Carswell said.

Single sculler Waddell, who retired from rowing after the Athens Olympics, said today she was grabbing her opportunity with both hands.

And with former world and Olympic cycling champion Sarah Ulmer and her coach and partner Brendon Cameron living just down the road from her in Cambridge, she was getting advice from the best in the business.

Waddell said husband, Rob, who staged his comeback to rowing late last year for a tilt at the Beijing Olympics, had encouraged her to try a new sport.

She was also inspired by Briton Rebecca Romero who won the individual pursuit at the Beijing Olympics after winning a world title and an Olympics silver medal in Athens in rowing.

"Rob felt my sports career should not be over just because I've had three children," Waddell, 35, said.

"Our family's basically complete and I'm ready for a new challenge and a new goal and this is an incredibly exciting one," said the mother of Sophie, six, Hayden, three, and one-year-old Madeline.

"It's a completely new sport for me but there have been lot of examples of rowers successfully turning to cycling and there's a lot of compatibility between the two sports."

The challenge was to regain her fitness.

"But when you have got a big base behind you – I have years and years of training behind me – it doesn't take much to recall that memory again," said Waddell, who contested the 400m hurdles at the 1990 world junior athletic championships.

She had been out for rides with Ulmer and a few other Cambridge women, among them national road champion Melissa Holt.

"Sarah and Brendon have been very, very encouraging and helpful and I'm extremely grateful to them."

The pain involved in track racing held no fears for her.

"In single sculling, I have had to tolerate that pain from lactic acid buildup for about seven minutes, so one good thing is that the pursuit is a shorter race.

"I've been in a very, very tough sport so I am under no illusions what I'm headed for."

Waddell said she would leave it to the national selectors to decide which event best suited her if she made the final cut.

BikeNZ performance programme manager Andy Reid said it had been tough to shortlist from the 100 high quality applications received.

The selected athletes would be tested this month with the best going to Invercargill for a training camp from December 13-18.

Carswell said the plan was to narrow the field down to possibly four riders by March before the world championships in Poland and "look for a rider pop out of there to carry on for the next four years – it's a big ask, a big commitment (for the riders picked)".

The 20 riders for phase two of the programme are: Sarah Beable, Nicole Begg, Toni Bradshaw, Melanie Burke, Marina Duvnjak, Laura Green, Francie Lawson, Mary Lister, Natalie Matheson, Kate McIlroy, Jamie Nielson, Vanessa Quin, Serena Sheridan, Sarah Smallman, Talisa Stanton, Kat Swart, Elizabeth Travis, Sonia Waddell, Kirsty Wilson.

-NZPA