Below a wrap of finals from day two of the UCI Oceania Track Cycling Championships supported by GJ Gardner Homes Waipa, at the Grassroots Trust Velodrome, Cambridge today.

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Elite Women Sprint:

Olympic champion Ellesse Andrews moved through to tomorrow’s semifinals in the women’s elite sprint, after two straight rides in the quarterfinal over Australian Sophie Watts.

She will come up against Australian Molly McGill in the semifinals, after she accounted for compatriot Deneaka Blinco in two straight rides.

Alessa McCaig (AUS) and New Zealand’s Olivia King will battle in the other semifinal. McCaig impressed with two straight rides to beat fellow Australian Imogen Jelbart in her quarterfinal, while King had to come from one ride down to edge out Australian Liliya Tatarinoff.

4000m Individual Pursuit – Botha Bags Record in Final:  

New Zealand star Bryony Botha went under the national and Oceania record twice on the way to the 4000m individual pursuit title.

Botha, a key part of the successful New Zealand women’s endurance programme, was top qualifier in 3:29.306 which broke the Oceania and New Zealand record which she held in 4:30.752.

The 28-year-old edged under that mark in winning the final in 3:29.111 to lower both records, heading off teammate Prudence Fowler.

“I was pretty stoked with that. I didn’t know what to expect because the last individual pursuit for me was this time last year,” said Botha. “I was aiming to do a similar time.

“I felt good and ended up doing quicker and under my national record and felt pretty good at the end. Coming into the final I wanted to hold a faster pace. I was pretty close but was not quite under 4:29 but I was pleased to be able to back up the morning ride and two PBs is pretty awesome.

“I was felt confident coming off the performance in the road time trial and took a lot of confidence in to the pursuit today.”

3rd-4th: Claudia Marcks held off the challenge from Australian teammate Sophie Edwards to claim the third place, finishing strongly to win in 4:38.772.

4000m Individual Pursuit: Tom Sexton continued his strong form in claiming the 4000m individual pursuit final in a personal best 4:09.421 to hold off his New Zealand teammate Marshall Erwood in a hard fought final.

Sexton led by 1.5s at the halfway mark but Erwood reduced toe gap to under a second at 3000m but was edged by 0.4s at the finish.

”It was pretty good,” said Sexton. That was an awesome time for me and 1.9s faster than what I did at the last Commonwealth Games. So I am tracking pretty well for that.

“We blocked out the podium with the New Zealand boys which is good, given we have not had much track training with the Tour of Southland the National Road Championships.

“It’s exciting. We have two World Cups coming up soon, so that is an important stepping stone to the rest of the year. Now we need to polish on the track to build on the good work we have done on the road.

Scratch Race

Under-19 Female:

Australia’s Sienna Monteith edged her way to an excellent factory in the 7.5km Scratch race, edging out New Zealand’s Shaylah Sayers and compatriot Megan Moore in the final lap sprint after a closely fought battle throughout.

Under-19 Male:

Southland’s Benson Boys claimed the under-19 men’s Scratch race over 75km in a sprint finish over the Australian pair of Samuel Hilditch from Queensland Academy and William Brown from South Australia.

Elite women:

This proved an outstanding race for the women’s 10km scratch race with individual pursuit winner Bryony Botha attacking with 1000m remaining. She was reeled in over the final two laps with Keira Will from the Australian National Team claiming the sprint win ahead of kiwi Samantha Donnelly and Botha.

Elite Men:

It proved a double win in the elite scratch races for Australia with Thomas Cornish finishing with a powerful burst to claim the win over Kiwi riders George Jackson and Nick Kergozou.

It proved a lively race over 40 laps with the Australian coming from behind to edge out the New Zealand pair.