Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Elena Worrall leads Ruby Bath, of James Hargest College, in a six-lap keirin heat of the South Island Secondary Schools Track Championships at ILT Stadium Southland in Invercargill on Tuesday.
Teenaged cyclists who have raced at junior world championship level are featuring in the more low-key South Island Secondary Schools Track Championships in Invercargill this week.
Event manager Glen Thomson said it was good to have junior world championship competitors, including Marshall Erwood from James Hargest College and Magnus Jamieson from Southland Boys’ High School, rubbing shoulders with other youngsters competing at the ILT velodrome.
“They don’t really have to do this after going to the world champs … But they want to represent their schools, and it gives the other kids something to look up to,” he said.
Kavinda Herath/Stuff
Emily Forsyth, of Southland Girls High School, and Sarah Hartstonge, of James Hargest College, race in the under-16 girls’ six-lap keirin non-championship event at the velodrome in Invercargill on Tuesday.
Thomson, who represented New Zealand at the 2000 Olympics in track cycling and won a gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, had himself competed at a South Island schools track event in Invercargill nearly 40 years ago, at Kew Bowl.
He recalled time spent “as a little kid” watching older kids racing at a high level, which gave him something to aspire to.
This week’s event, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, features about 70 young cyclists from around the South Island, including many who competed at last week’s Yunca Junior Tour of Southland road racing event.
