Cycling: Sprint champ wins race against adversity

Justin Grace of Auckland had a long wait between overcoming a debilitating illness and triumphing at the national track championships in Dunedin.

Grace's determination, courage and perseverance in the face of ulcerative colitis, which required removal of his large intestine, were rewarded when he won his first national senior title.

Grace, 32, the national junior sprint champion in 1988, made no mistakes when he won the men's sprint in a tight struggle against Neil Campbell, also of Auckland.

Grace won the first race, Campbell the second and it came down to tactics in the third race. Grace got the jump with just over a lap to go and controlled the race from the front on the final lap to win by a wheel.

"It's been a long time coming," he said, "but it's been worth the wait."

Grace, an aircraft engineer with Air New Zealand, was born in Canada and grew up in Auckland.

He moved back to Canada after the 1990 Commonwealth Games and was in the Canadian national team for two years.

He narrowly missed selection for the Canadian team for the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria.

He then suffered inflammation of the large intestine and underwent surgery.

"It took me two years to get over the surgery," he said. "I had no desire to do any sport. I was just enjoying not being sick."

He had not been on a bike for seven years when he was asked to do the cycling leg in the Air New Zealand team for a businesshouse triathlon in 2001.

"I trained a bit and enjoyed being on the bike again," Grace said. "Six months later, I was in the Commonwealth Games team."

At Manchester last year, he finished fourth in the teams sprint and ninth in the individual sprint and kilo.

In the women's 80-lap points race at the national champs, Auckland's Sarah Ulmer, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist in the event, took command from the start and comfortably won the title with 29 points. She won five of the eight sprints and was second in another.

Joanne Kiesanowski, of Canterbury, was second with 21 points and Tammy Boyd, also of Canterbury, third with 10 points.

Mid South Canterbury cyclist Rowan Brown won the boys under-17 sprint, beating Ben Simpson of Auckland 2-0 in the final.

Aucklander Adam Coker won the junior men's under-19 sprint 2-1 against Matthew Schriek of Southland. Coker is a former national BMX champion.

Ben Simpson of Auckland won the boys' under-17 10km points race on a countback from Waikato's Mark Langlands. Both scored 10 points.

- NZPA