Rebecca Spence underlined an extraordinary sporting pedigree by winning a gold medal at the junior world cycling championships in Belgium today.
The Auckland teenager, already a force at world level in duathlon and triathlon, decimated the field in the individual time trial on a challenging, hilly 11.8km course at Spa-Francorchamps.
Spence, 17 and the 2005 and 2006 world junior duathlon champion, was too quick for her rivals, returning a time of 18 minutes 53 seconds to be 22sec clear of her nearest rival, Lesya Kalitovska, of Ukraine.
Denmark's Mie Bekker Lacota was third, 38sec behind Spence, while the next best New Zealander was Rushlee Buchanan, one minute 17 seconds behind the winner in 12th place.
The men's race over 23.6km was won by Germany's Marcel Kittel, with the leading New Zealander, Ryan Wills, 2min 5sec back in 21st, while Shem Rodger was 31st.
Spence's success was further confirmation of her burgeoning allround talents.
She has won two world junior duathlon titles and last year finished second in the junior elite women's section at the world triathlon championships in Japan.
A seventh form student at Rangitoto College, Spence had joined the New Zealand riders in Belgium this week after attending a training camp at Triathlon New Zealand's European base in France.
She is to return to France next week to continue her preparations for the world triathlon championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, on September 2-3.
BikeNZ high performance manager Michael Flynn was left enraptured by Spence's performance.
"Rebecca's result was quite sensational," he told NZPA from Belgium.
"It's a big result. The way she went about her business was awesome.
"She has got a great head on her shoulders as well as a great amount of physical ability."
Spence's win continued a highly successful championships for New Zealand riders in Belgium after they had earlier won three silver medals and one bronze in the track events.
Her attention now turns to the road race on Monday (NZ time), after which she returns to France to continue preparations for the world triathlon championships in Switzerland on September 2-3..
- NZPA
