Young sprint cyclist Stephanie McKenzie has been added to New Zealand's Commonwealth Games team.
The 21-year-old, originally from Auckland but now based at BikeNZ's high performance centre in Cambridge, earned her nomination after a fine trial last week, where she clocked 34.91 seconds for the 500m time trial. That time was under the national record, but can't be rated as an official record.
McKenzie won four national titles at the New Zealand championships in Cambridge two months ago but needed further improvement to meet the selection criteria of top six potential in the Commonwealth.
Her time trial performance would have placed her within that criteria based on times at this year's world championships as the fifth-ranked Commonwealth rider.
"Steph has responded well to the challenges since moving to Cambridge under sprint coach Anthony Peden," said BikeNZ high performance director Mark Elliott. "She has excellent potential for Rio 2016 and beyond and she has taken the first big step with her training and performances which warranted this selection to Glasgow."
