Cycling: Youngsters enter bronze age

RIDING TALL: Michaela Walker and Damian Hussey with their medals from the North Island secondary school championships. PHOTO/SUPPLIED 10072014WCSUPCYCLE

Amongst the hundreds of school athletes arriving in Cambridge on plush team buses from the top city schools, it would have been understandable if two Wanganui teenagers got a little lost in the crowd.

But Wanganui Girls' College's Michaela Walker and Wanganui High School's Damian Hussey made sure to stand out, winning bronze medals at the North Island Secondary School Cycling Championships this week.

Competing under coach Lyall Hastie as the only two locals amongst 650 entrants, Hussey, 13, won his medal in the under-14 boys' derby final on the new Avanti Velodrome, in what was the first time that track cycling had been included in the North Island programme.

Hastie said Hussey's field was good but not the strongest, however Walker, 17, was impressive given her competition in a stacked under-20 girls' scratch race.

"It was a very big three days for all involved," he said.

"This was an excellent result given she was riding against girls who are going to the junior world championships.

"It was also her first outing on the track since the national championships in February."

Walker, who also won the open women's section of the Powerco Cycle Tour of Taranaki in early June, has only been actively competing in the sport for a little over 18 months, currently getting out with Hastie for 5am training so she can also attend school and an afternoon job.

"She has rapidly matured as a cyclist, with her tactical awareness up there with the best in her age group," said Hastie.

Walker also competed in road events, coming sixth in the under-20 road race and fifth in the criterium amongst a field of 50 riders.

Next will be the national secondary school championships in Feilding.