Tokyo Olympics: Nine new names in track cycling team

Rushlee Buchanan leads the team pursuit team. Te Awamutu Courier

The New Zealand track cycling team named for the Tokyo Olympics has a mixture of experienced campaigners and young blood.

Just six of the 15 riders return from the 2016 Rio team, four of whom will compete in their third Olympics – Aaron Gate, Ethan Mitchell, Rushlee Buchannan and Jaime Nielsen.

The other nine will compete at the Games for the first time.

The team includes Rio silver medalists Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell, with Sam Dakin given the nod to join them in the team sprint, after Eddie Dawkins retired earlier this year. Once one of the world's biggest threats, they're now eighth in the world rankings.

The team's strength lies in the endurance events, with the men's team pursuit ranked second in the world, the women third, while Campbell Stewart is ranked third in the omnium and second in the Madison.

Cycling New Zealand said that with no global track cycling events on the international schedule for the next five months, it made sense to name the team now, with the best interests of athletes also in mind.

Cycling NZ high performance director Martin Barras is excited by the strong mix of talent and experience.

"The endurance squads have come off an outstanding 2019 season and through to early 2020 with some young talent combining with our established riders. Both squads produced world class performances and have used the postponement to 2021 to focus on an extensive strength and conditioning training block.

"The sprint group are in a rebuilding phase and this year has allowed us to bring on some young talent to merge with our proven performers."

Barras said they have included additional reserve riders to cover the risk of injury, with such significant lead time to Tokyo next year.

Among those named for their third Games is Tour of Southland road champion Gate.

"This is a big step towards the Olympics Games so it's a really special milestone for us," Gate said.

"Being named means that despite all the stuff going on in the world, we can continue with our plan for Tokyo and put all our hard work to good use."

New Zealand has won seven Olympic medals on the track.

Olympic Squad:

Women

Endurance:
Bryony Botha – Team pursuit, madison (reserve)
Rushlee Buchanan – Team pursuit, madison
Holly Edmonston – Team pursuit, omnium
Jessie Hodges – Madison, omnium (reserve), team pursuit (reserve)
Kirstie James – Team pursuit, sprint (TBC)
Jaime Neilsen – Team pursuit

Sprint:
Ellesse Andrews – Keirin, sprint

Men

Endurance:
Aaron Gate – Team pursuit, madison (TBC), omnium (TBC)
Regan Gough – Team pursuit
Jordan Kerby – Team pursuit
Campbell Stewart – Team pursuit, madison (TBC), omnium (TBC)
Corbin Strong – Team pursuit, madison (TBC), omnium (TBC)

Sprint:
Sam Dakin – Team sprint, keirin
Ethan Mitchell – Team sprint, sprint
Sam Webster – Team sprint, sprint, keirin
Callum Saunders (sprint) and Nick Kergozou (endurance) have been selected as travelling reserves

Jordan Castle, Tom Sexton, Michaela Drummond, Nicole Shields, Emily Shearman and Ally Wollaston have been named as non-travelling reserves with one of the female riders to be selected as a non-travelling reserve next year.