Australian Youth Olympics Wrap Up

What a blast that was! Sydney was more than what I expected; the whole experience was completely mind blowing. It was nice for a change to be in a team that wasn’t just cyclist, their was 100’s of other kiwi athletes that were competing in a vast array of sports.

The opening ceremony was an amazing feeling, just hearing New Zealand read out over the speakers in the arena and hearing the crowd roar has to be one of the greatest moments of my life, from what I heard NZ was second only to Australia in the roar scale but not by much!

Me on the front during my lap of the team sprint final

The racing on Dunc Gray which was the track used for the 2000 Sydney Olympics was spectacular and for the small team we had over there, we defiantly left our mark. First up was team sprint day. I warmed up with the boys incase something happened with warm up and then I would be shuffled into the team. The boys did an exceptional job in qually and got into the gold medal ride off. So at this stage I change down my gear to warm down and started my warm down rountine on the rollers, but then with maybe 15 minutes to the gold medal ride our coach JR came over and said stop drinking your protein shake. I initially though what am in trouble for? He then came back over to me and said you’re in; it was amazing that I would get to race. I did feel for Callum as I thought he deserved to ride the final, but he had done a stella job in qually so he wasn’t being replaced more rested for the rest of the week. The final when well, Quinn pulled out an 18.2 start lap which is incredibly quick, so he gapped me at the start and I used him as a carrot to chase for the start lap. This meant that I did a 500 metre time trial which was a lot more painful than what I remembered it to be. In the end we were beaten by 0.1 of a second by the Aussies.

The next day was kerin day. It was going okay till the semi final, I wasn’t decisive as I should have been, it was a mistake that unfortunately cost me a spot in the final. In the 7-12^th I learnt from my mistakes and fixed it, however the result didn’t come.

The team after racing
hanging out in Darling Harbour

Sprints day was next, the 200 metre time trial went okay, I did a 10.799 which is the 2^nd fastest time that I’ve ever done which I was happy with but I would have liked to go into the 10.6’s. I qualified 5^th. I drew a Malaysian who I rode a decisive sprint against and rode him on my hip to the finish. In the quarters I drew Jem, its always harder to race against your team mate, especially Jem as we have been at training camps together for just under a year now and know how each other races. The first ride I laid off too much and couldn’t come around him. In the second ride I time the run at him much better and he pipped me by a tire in the end, I was disappointed as I wanted to be in the finals the next day but I was happy that at least a team mate went through and not someone else.

After the last day of racing we all went into darling harbour and saw the world’s largest rubber duck! Jem, Chad and myself went on a racing simulator. It was extremely realistic and initially we had a practice around Bathurst which was awesome to drive that track as it’s my favorite track. We then did a 5 lap race on teratonga since Jem was the only one of us that knew the track. I was leading till 2 to go when I braked too late for the last corner and spun spectacularly off the track.

So after all that fun, it’s time for nationals and boy is that going to be a blast. I cant wait to rip it up on my favorite track in the world, invers!