New Zealand picked up silver and bronze medals in the Commonwealth Games cycling today, but still finished the day at the velodrome slightly disappointed.
Jesse Sergent, the world championship silver medallist in the individual pursuit in Copenhagen earlier this year, was targeting the gold medal in Delhi. However, he was beaten by close rival Jack Bobridge of Australia, the man he pushed into the bronze medal position in Copenhagen.
And in the 1km time trial, Southlander Eddie Dawkins was left rueing missed opportunities when he had to settle for the bronze medal.
The Sergent-Bobridge final was a thriller. The Australian stormed out at the start and at one point led Sergent by 1½ seconds. However, Sergent finished strongly and was reeling in Bobridge on every lap.
In the end, the finish came just too soon and Bobridge won in 4min 17.157s, edging out Sergent, who was timed at 4min 17.495s.
Sergent, a 22-year-old from Feilding, said the New Zealand camp knew before the final it would be a tight finish.
“We knew it would come down to the final six or eight laps when I had to bring it back,” he said. “I didn’t quite do it in time. It was hit or miss in the end. We knew it was going to be close.”
New Zealand made a very strong showing in the individual pursuit.
Sam Bewley was fourth, pipped for the bronze medal by another Australian, Michael Hepburn. And the third New Zealander, Peter Latham, was fifth in qualifying.
Dawkins was unfortunate. Just before he began his ride in the 1km time trial, he discovered his handlebars were out of alignment and had to have them replaced. This affected his control during his ride, and was possibly responsible for him clipping an advertising marker as he flew home on the last lap.
Even at his best, Dawkins would not have caught the winner, Australian Scott Sunderland, whose time was a super-slick 1min 01.114s. However Dawkins’ 1min 02.777 was just a whisker behind second-placed Malaysian Mohd Rizal Tisin.
“I’m disappointed,” said Dawkins. “A couple of mechanical things played with the result.”
Auckland 20-year-old Myron Simpson finished fourth in 1min 03.449s and Marc Ryan was seventh.
Alison Shanks, whose main focus is the individual pursuit, had a good warm-up when she finished sixth in the 500m time trial. Shanks zipped around her two laps in 36.565s and was pleased with her outing.
