Cycling: Youngster king of the keirin Castle

Jordan Castle, front, and Campbell Stewart. Photo / Bevan Conley

Young Manawatu cyclist Jordan Castle, 21, upset his more fancied rivals to win the keirin final at the Oceania Championships track cycling event in Cambridge last night.

And the evening finished with a brilliant display by former junior world championship medallists Campbell Stewart and Tom Sexton, both still teenagers, who claimed the 40km elite men's madison race for New Zealand.

New Cycling New Zealand high performance director, Martin Barras, was impressed with the quality of the riding and the Cambridge track and training complex.

"The facility is top notch. It is great for training, for the staff and with all the other services offered here, it is among the very best facilities I have ever seen," said Barras.

"It reinforces my opinion and that of the rest of the world, that the class of this organisation is top notch. I don't think the Kiwis understand just how good this programme and the organisation is.

"It is going to be my job to pull this programme together and get everyone to realise this. All my former friends from Australia are saying the same thing, so I am excited about the challenge ahead."

Castle, fresh from two World Cup competitions in Europe with the New Zealand team, beat off a world class field, overtaking Sam Webster on the final turn and holding off Australia's former junior world champion Jacob Schmidt and world champion medallist Eddie Dawkins for the victory.

"It's not sunk in. It feels like I have been working towards this for a while so it's pretty exciting," Castle said.

"I got lucky drawing six behind Sam [Webster] because he one of the fastest and strongest so it was fantastic to grab his wheel and hang on to the finish."

Stewart, a multiple junior world champion, and Sexton produced a superb second half of the Madison, controlling the race with a level of nous that belied their years. They won five of the final six sprints to finish with 74 points ahead of the Australian combination of Kelland O'Brien and Rohan Wight on 64.