Four WAIS Cyclists Named for Junior Track World Champs

Four WAIS athletes have been selected to contest the 2013 UCI Junior Track World Championships to be staged in Glasgow, Scotland from 7 to 11 August.

Dual Junior World Champion Kelsey Robson will have the opportunity to defend her titles, whilst her WAIS training partners; Tian Beckett, Elissa Wundersitz and Sam Welsford will all make their world championship debuts.

Junior World Championship selection represents a meteoric rise for 17 year-old Woodlands resident Sam Welsford, after the first year U19 rider stormed the boards at the Dunc Gray Velodrome recently, winning two gold and a silver at track nationals.

Robson – who won two gold medals and claimed a world record at last year’s titles in New Zealand – will again be prominent in the pursuit events, whilst the selection of Beckett and Wundersitz adds to a successful month for the WAIS track cycling program, after Mel Hoskins and Scott Sunderland were earlier picked for the senior track world championships in Belarus.

WAIS head cycling coach Darryl Benson paid tribute to the efforts of the juniors and suggested it was the culmination of a long period of work.

“It’s pleasing to have four WAIS athletes selected for the junior world championships team, as all of them have worked extremely hard to earn their place with consistent results stretching through Oceania track champs, AYOF and the recent track nationals,” he said.

Cycling Australia National Junior Performance Director, Matthew Gilmore, says the team boasts some impressive talent but the focus will be on giving the teenagers the skills they need to compete at world level.

“As in previous years this team is a great testament to the work done by the State Institute and State Academy coaches who do such a good job developing the riders through the age groups,” said Gilmore. “We will now replicate the training and preparation we use at senior level and work to instil the team culture and commitment.

Australia’s junior teams have a record of success at world championship level but Gilmore says that has never been the focus.

“Our biggest challenge is managing the personal expectations of the riders and we do that by making sure the focus is not on the outcome,” said Gilmore. “We never say we’re going to win, we say we’re going to do the best we can on the day and we’re going to focus on getting all the little things right along the way.

“We want the riders to be polite, respectful and punctual and to behave the way we expect Australian team members to behave,” he said. “That means they can hopefully step into the senior ranks eventually with all the good habits already formed.”

Having said that Gilmore is also excited to see how the returning riders have progressed since last year and what the débutantes can achieve.

Kelsey Robson is defending junior world champion in both the individual and team pursuit titles and at the recent national championships joined elite riders Melissa Hoskins and Isabella King in the West Australian trio that won the combined team pursuit title. Victorian Zac Shaw is another who knows what it feels like to pull on a rainbow jersey having won the kilometre time trial at the 2012 championships in New Zealand.

Both the endurance and sprint groups have the potential to shine and will benefit from a national junior program that produced almost all of the track cyclists in Australia’s London Olympic Games team.

This year also sees a changing of the guard in the coaching ranks with Tasmanian Institute of Sport Head Coach, Gene Bates, stepping in as men’s endurance coach.

“Positions with the junior teams are great professional development opportunities for our coaches and Gene learned from Tim Decker last year and hopefully next year someone can learn from Gene,” said Gilmore who will look after the women’s endurance coaching while Cycling Australia Sprint Academy Coach Sean Eadie will be in charge of the sprint group.

The junior worlds will be staged on the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, also the home of the track cycling events at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

– with Cycling Australia