New Legacy

The final few days of racing for me consisted with the Keirin and also the 500m time trial. I finished 2nd in the Keirin and 4th in the 500 just outside a medal! Paige finished 11th both in the Keirin and 500. this years championships have been personally the best meet so far in my cycling career, I have come away with 2 silvers, a Bronze medal, 4th place and I was so close to getting the Junior World sprint record, missing out by only 0.011s!

Start of the Keirin Final

500

Keirin podium...2nd :)

The final medal count for the New Zealand team at the 2011 Junior World Track Championships is a staggering 10 medals, this bettered the previous medal total of 5. As a team we came home with 4 Silvers and 6 Bronze medal, being a small country we have so much talent. Last year we only brought home 2 Silver medals, this year really shows how much NZ cycling has come along. Ross Machefski told the team to create a new legacy on this years campaign. In Aigle he put a short video together after discussing what we need to do to create it at the track camp early this year. We trained hard, we showed professionalism on and off the bike, we had our ups and downs but we all pulled through and created a new legacy that will stand for the next group to take on, anything is possible!

Frame winding it up in the Kilo. 11th

Soph winning a sprint in the points race. 3rd

Cassie on her way to winning 3rd in the Scratch race.

I just would like to say a big thank you to everyone and all the support that I have been given to make this all happen! Hearing the Haka and also the Po Karekare ana song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GXua6gD4Hc in the background every time one of us was on the start line made us all proud to be there, before one of my earlier sprint rounds I have got to admit I got a bit emotional hearing the song! All the hard work, planning, preparation and commitment my personal coach, Stuart MacDonald and Simone Jones put in before I headed away was phenomenal! John Rastrick....AKA JR our sprint coach from Christchurch, did a wonderful job trying to keep both Paige and I in order whilst overseas on the campaign and I am sure he was so proud to see this year's championships unfold it was truly one of a kind!

JR & I after coming 2nd in the sprints.

Also thank you to those that have financially helped me get there, I literally would not have done it without you, once again thank you to the Canterbury Orthopaedic Services, Don Oliver Sports foundation, SPARC,  Cycling Southland, ILT, Cycle City and last but not lest my wonderful parents, Murray and Debbie McKenzie! They were unable to attend this year's championships because they bought me a house in Invercargill so that I can train using the only indoor Velodrome in NZ even if it is at the bottom of NZ, I want to train to be the best and reach those goals.

Yesterday, I arrived back into New Zealand early morning and meet both my parents before my next departure to Christchurch and onto Invercargill.....Righto from here I am having a short break so I can also catch up on my Massey Papers and then will be back into it focusing on the Oceania's (Nov 21st-24th), which will be held here in Invercargill this will be my first race meet where I am Elite so I am really looking forward to it!!

Arriving into Auckland...with my parents :)

So, that's all for now, thank you for taking the time to read my blog hope you have enjoyed it.

Steph