Archbold stakes his claim on the omnium

Archbold celebrates his win ©Envious Photography-BikeNZ

Nov 25th, 11. The World Championship silver omnium medallist is now the Oceania Championship gold medalist after Shane Archbold took out the competition last night.

The win secures NZ a place in the omnium at Melbourne's 2012 UCI World Track Championships in April and gives the Timaru rider a big advantage in the push to be New Zealand's representative at the Olympics come July.

The six event omnium is all about consistency. On the first day of the omnium competition Archold had two wins, but was disappointed with his 5th place in the points race. Yesterday he rode to 2nd place in all three disciplines to take the overall title. 

Archbold finished 2nd in the individual pursuit behind a flying Westley Gough who produced a world class time of 4:19.720 ahead of Archbold (4:25.840) and Jason Allen (4:27.496).

In the scratch race it was Southland rider Andew van der Heyden who took first place after he took his chance to push clear with six laps to go.

Archbold put on the after-burners two laps out and all-but chased down the Southlander and impressed with his 2nd placing.

Gough again showed his talent with an excellent 1:03.044 effort to take out the final event, the 1000m time trial with Archbold achieving a personal best 1:03.207 for 2nd place.

That was enough for Archbold to claim the overall honours from Gough and Allen.

New Zealand interest in the women's omnium faded when top rider Jo Kiesanowski withdrew with illness after a disappointing individual pursuit in the morning, well below her best.

It meant the women's contest became a two-horse race with triple world junior champion Amy Cure holding a lead over compatriot Ashlee Ankudinoff, a member of the World Champion winning team pursuit last year.

Ankudinoff produced the goods today, winning all three events. She topped the 3000m individual pursuit in 3:38.649 from Cure, and sprinted clear with two laps remaining to claim the 10km scratch race with Cure second ahead of kiwi Sequoia Cooper.

With Cure leading by one point going into the 500m time trial, Ankudinoff produced a world class 35.893 to win from Cure and Canterbury junior Liz Steel. This brought the pair level on 11 points each, with Ankudinoff given the gold medal on a better accumulated total in the timed events.

Australian Katherine Bates was awarded the bronze on a similar countback from Southland's Cooper.

Two other endurance golds

The 2010 national road champion Rushlee Buchanan (Te Awamutu) showed her skills to hold out international teammates Lauren Ellis (Hinds) and Gemma Dudley (Levin) to win the women's 20km points race.

Buchanan finished on 21 points from Ellis 17 and Dudley 13 on countback from Australia's Amy Cure.

The championships had a popular and spectacular finish with local rider Tom Scully linking with Jason Allen to win the 40km Madison in a super-fast and exciting race. They finished on 23 points ahead of Australians Edward Bissaker and Scott Law 20.

Occeania Track Championships - final day 3 endurance results

Men's Omnium

• 4000m individual pursuit: Westley Gough (NZL) 4:19.720, 1; Shane Archbold (NZL)4:25.840,2; Jason Allen (NZL) 4:27.496, 3; Myron Simpson (NZL) 4:30.240, 4; Edward Bissaker (AUS) 4:32.912, 5; Cameron Karwowski (NZL) 4:33.445, 6.
• Scratch race, 15km: Andrew van der Heyden (Southland) 1, Archbold 2, Bissaker 3.
• 1000m time trial: Gough 1:03.044, 1; Archbold 1:03.207, 2; Karwowski 1:03.874, 3.
• Final points: Archbold 13 points, 1; Gough 23, 2; Allen 25, 3.

Women's Omnium

• 3000m individual pursuit: Ashlee Akuninoff (AUS) 3:38.649, 1; Amy Cure (AUS) 3:39.984, 2; Katherine Bates (AUS) 3:43.384, 3; Racquel Sheath (NZL) 3:48.847, 4; Sequoia Cooper (NZL) 3:48.847, 5; Joanne Kiesanowski (NZL) 3:49.182, 6.
• Scratch race, 10km: Ankudinoff 1, Cure 2, Cooper 3.
• 500m time trial: Ankudinoff 35.893, 1; Cure 37.361, 2; Elizabeth Steel (NZL) 37.512, 3.
• Final points: Ankudinoff 11, 1; Cure 11, 2; Bates 29, 3; Cooper 29, 4.

Women's 20km points race: Rushlee Buchanan (NZL) 21 points, 1; Lauren Ellis (NZL) 17, 2; Gemma Dudley 13, 3.

Men's 40km Madison: Tom Scully and Jason Allen 23 points, 1; Edward Bissaker and Scott Law 20, 2; Jackson Law and Peter Loft 15.