It proved a positive and busy session for New Zealand riders on day three of the UCI Junior Track World Championships in the Netherlands today.<\/p>\n
Kiwi riders qualified and contested three finals with some excellent performances at the Apeldoorn Velodrome.<\/p>\n
Cambridge sprinter Alex Schuler impressed to force his way through to tomorrow\u2019s quarterfinals in the individual sprint.<\/p>\n
Schuler and Hamilton\u2019s Flynn Underwood both qualified in 10.404s and 10.703s respectively in the 200m sprint qualifying.<\/p>\n
Underwood was edged by Great Britain rider Kristian Larigo in the first round but Schuler beat Malaysia\u2019s Muhannad Ali Badrun. The Cambridge rider then pipped Po Le Ng from Hong Kong-China, the sixth-ranked qualifier, by 0.03s in the second round.<\/p>\n
He progresses to the quarterfinals tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth qualifying times were solid given it was slow conditions today and this is a slow track,\u201d said head coach Callum Saunders. \u201cAlex showed plenty of fight so he will look forward to the quarterfinals and hopefully beyond tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dunedin\u2019s Joshua Grieve featured strongly to finish 11th\u00a0in the final of the Points race after winning the penultimate sprint to finish fourth in qualifying. In the final he worked hard to finish 11th\u00a0overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoshua featured well in qualifying and injected some good pace in the final but was not quite able to capitalise in his sprint but he showed plenty of promise,\u201d said Saunders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has the omnium tomorrow and madison on the day after, so this experience will stand him well for those races to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auckland\u2019s Hunter Dalton was just off his personal best with a 3:20.607 effort in qualifying in the individual pursuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a solid result for Hunter given the conditions today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christchurch 17-year-old Sophie Maxwell finished 11th\u00a0in the four-event omnium competition.<\/p>\n
Maxwell was 10th\u00a0in the opening scratch race and 10th\u00a0in the Tempo. She placed 16th\u00a0in the demanding elimination race and finished with 13th\u00a0in the Points race to placed 11th\u00a0overall.<\/p>\n
She was third among non-European nations.<\/p>\n
\u201cSophie is an exciting racer who showed up strongly and injected pace into the bunch racing in her debut in an international omnium,\u201d said Saunders. \u201cWe had a crash at one stage but recovered well and impressed us as she was always spicing things up and keeping the race alive in a very competitive field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tomorrow\u2019s penultimate day of racing includes the men\u2019s omnium, sprint and scratch races along with the women\u2019s kilo and individual pursuit.<\/p>\n