Cycling: Waddell upbeat despite snags

Sonia Waddell. Photo / Getty Images

Her Olympic cycling hopes dashed, Sonia Waddell simply shrugs her shoulders and moves on. She's been around too long and seen too much in her sporting career to wonder about 'what ifs'.

Besides, the lure of Paralympics glory and a busy family and business life are more than enough consolation for a woman whose life is already bulging with achievement.

A former Olympic rower and wife of two-time world champion sculler Rob Waddell, she added to her impressive CV this year by capturing the women's time trial title at the national road cycling championships in January. As a relative novice in the sport, Waddell (38) defeated track specialists Jaime Nielsen and former world pursuit champion Alison Shanks by more than 20 seconds, hinting that she had some potential at international level and perhaps even next year's London Olympics.

But there were two snags. If she stepped up to national representation, she would have to abandon her partnership with visually impaired para-cyclist Jayne Parsons, whom she piloted to a world pursuit title on a tandem bike in March. Waddell might have made it if Bike NZ had shown her some Olympic consideration. Her prospects were effectively blocked by world championship silver medallist Linda Villumsen, who didn't compete at the nationals, but has a virtual lock on the one time-trial spot available at London.

"Up until the middle of this year, if I had known there was a pathway for me in the time trial, I would have jumped at it," reflects Waddell. "I would have been really excited about that and felt I could do well internationally. I had the physical attributes and wouldn't face the same learning curve that other events involve.

"But Bike NZ hasn't been interested in taking me into their elite ranks, so I've probably closed the door on that. They've got an incredibly strong team and for anyone who's not part of that, it's almost impossible to break in.

"Realistically, I probably wouldn't be training enough to compete at that level. I'm certainly not upset at Bike NZ, or feel angry or shafted, whereas once, as a younger athlete, I might have. I probably hoped my results would speak for themselves, but nowadays, I'm not prepared to get into selection arguments. Life is just so different for me now."

Waddell will focus on her combination with Parsons, which started out as a favour to Paralympics NZ cycling director Brendon Cameron and partner Sarah Ulmer. In just over a year together, the pair have three world championship medals and their 3m 37.923s over 3000m at last week's Oceania Championships was about a second outside the world paralympic record.

"At first, I wasn't keen to make a commitment, but it does seem to fit in around my family," she says. "We're fairly certain of selection for the London Paralympics. Cycling qualification works on points and we've accumulated a lot of points over the last year - we've never finished below fourth in any event we've done. I'd love to think we can come home with at last one medal from the four events we compete in."

After making a comeback to rowing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Rob Waddell has returned to yachting as a grinder and the pair run an agistment farm near Cambridge.