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Post date: Aug 13, 2014 11:12:43 AM
Fergus McQueen, Nick Chisholm, Josh Chisholm, Emily Wooster, Michael Harris, Isabella Hosking, Jack Feltham, Hugh Munday, Katherine Hosking and David Harris (coach)
NIAS MTB Team Has a huge success in the last round of the Yakima Series in southern Qld
Saturday morning the team left for Hiddenvale for our last big hit out prior to the QLD State championships on the 24th of August. The team has just come of a section of base training and are keen to get some high level racing in to build their form. They were quietly confident after a practice lap of the track on Saturday afternoon but still a little concerned about the high quality of riders they were going to face. The track was a mix of rocky sections, some interesting single track and a lot of climbing. The climbs were challenging at times and relentless in their regularity.
Race morning was pretty smooth and as the riders started to roll in from all over QLD there was a real race vibe starting to build. Nick Chisholm was the first of our riders to race and he put everyone on notice by racing off the line and leading for the whole race. He established a 2 minute lead by the second lap and coasted home for our first win of the day. The rest of our riders were in the next race and it saw a large field lined up on the start. Emily Wooster and Isabella Hosking in the U/15 women both raced extremely well, Emily had a great start and went on to finish the Job in First place while Isabella did not quite get the start she wanted and had to fight her way back and was closing in on Emily to finish second. Katherine Hosking the reigning under U15 National Champion rode up an age group in pursuit of stronger competition and she lead the U17 group from start to finish beating most of the boys as well as all of the open women and having the 2nd fastest female lap for the day. Nick and the Girls had set a pretty high benchmark winning everything so far and the pressure was now on. In the U15 Fergus McQueen rode a really strong race but fell away late in the race to finish 3rd while Josh Chisholm was on track for 4th place but a mechanical issue saw him slip back to 8th. In the U17 the race was red hot and went to the wire, our boys were in the mix for most of the first lap but the speed was too hot and they slipped back a bit, Mick Harris ended up just beating Jack Feltham to take 3rd and 4th respectively. Jack Feltham was coming home strong which is welcome news after he has been struggling with injury. Hugh Munday managed to pick up 8th in that category which is a strong result as it is his first year in that age group.
We took away 9 athletes and managed 3 wins, one 2nd, 2 thirds a 4th and two 8ths which is an amazing result for the team. The riders showed great sportsmanship and composure throughout the day and were even commended on their podium speeches. The Coaching staff is looking forward to the continued success and watching these exceptional young adults set new standards in all round performance.
Our next hit out as a team will be the QLD State championships in Adare (just out of Gatton) on the 24th of August.
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