An outstanding 16 New Zealand downhill riders have qualified for tomorrow\u2019s finals after outstanding qualifying performances at the UCI MTB World championships in Val di Sole, Italy.<\/p>\n
They are led by Rotorua\u2019s Lachlan Stevens-McNab and Palmerston North\u2019s Jonty Williamson who were fastest respectively in the elite men and junior men qualifying on a superb day of downhill performances for the kiwi contingent.<\/p>\n
Stevens-McNab (Trek Unbroken) laid down the marker in elite men with a superb run of 3:34.010, which was half a second clear of Australian Oliver Davis and defending champion Jackson Goldstone (CAN).<\/p>\n
He is joined by four other kiwi riders to qualify for the elite men\u2019s final in Christchurch\u2019s Luke Wayman (Continental Atherton), Kaikoura\u2019s Oli Clark (Mondraker Factory), Rotorua\u2019s Tuhoto-Ariki Pene (Mondraker) and Hamilton\u2019s James Macdermid (The Alliance).<\/p>\n
Manawatu\u2019s Jonty Williamson, who has already wrapped up the UCI junior men\u2019s downhill world series, was fastest in junior men\u2019s qualifying. The Yeti Fox Factory rider clocked 3:30.51 to lead way with four other kiwis also through in qualifying.<\/p>\n
They are led by Queenstown\u2019s Malik Boatwright (Continental Atherton), second fastest behind Williamson, New Plymouth\u2019s Seppy Binsbergen, Rotorua\u2019s Sterling Stevens-McNab (The Alliance) and New Plymouth\u2019s Dexter Lock who are all through to the finals.<\/p>\n
Auckland\u2019s Sacha Earnest, a two-time junior world championship medallist, was quickest of the kiwi gravity qualifiers in elite women in fourth fastest for the Trek Unbroken rider, just ahead of Tauranga\u2019s Eliana Hulsebosch (Santa Cruz Synd) and joined in tomorrow\u2019s final by Queenstown\u2019s Jess Blewitt (Scott Downhill) and Rotorua teenager Kate Hastings.<\/p>\n
In-form Queenstown rider Indy Deavoll (Stoic Racing) was best of the kiwis and third fastest in junior women\u2019s qualifying, and will be joined in the finals by Martinborough\u2019s Capella Martin.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s rain helped pack down the soil on the downhill course which proved a fast and twisting test.<\/p>\n
Downhill finals are set for tomorrow with action moving to cross-country finals on Sunday (local time)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An outstanding 16 New Zealand downhill riders have qualified for tomorrow\u2019s finals after outstanding qualifying performances at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-584212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}