DUBBO Cycle Club had seven riders target last week’s NSW State Masters Track Championships at Sydney’s Dunc Gray Velodrome and each every one returned home with at least one medal.
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Jason Farr, Darrell Wheeler, Tim Dawson, Mike and Heather Ticehurst, Catherine Fuller and Simone Grounds contested a range of events during last week’s NSW State Masters Track Championships and collected a staggering 11 medals across 14 events, further enhancing the local club’s reputation.
In just his second season back riding on the track after a 20 year absence from the sport, Farr claimed gold in the MMAS3 individual time trial (750m - 51.727 seconds) and finished second in both the sprint and scratch race.
Farr qualified second fastest in the MMAS3 sprint flying 200m (11.355 seconds) and enjoyed a comfortable quarter final victory against Kevin Murray, before winning his semifinal in two matches against Darryl Thorncraft.
The Dubbo sprinter took on Randwick Botany’s Nathan McLachlan in the final, which was won by the powerhouse Sydney rider in two very close matches.
Wheeler was the resounding winner of the MMAS9 individual pursuit (two kilometres – 2 minutes 40.138 seconds) and finished second in both the individual time trial (500m – 39.594 seconds) and points race, which was taken out by Hugh Gray, who edged out Wheeler in the final sprint.
Gray and Wheeler tied on 16 points after the 30 lap event however as Gray won the final sprint, he finished in a higher position overall.
The Dubbo pairing of Simone Grounds and Catherine Fuller were forced to face off for bronze in the WMAS3 individual pursuit finals (two kilometers) after qualifying third and fourth fastest respectively.
Grounds (2 minutes 44.766 seconds) was able to get the upper hand in the bronze medal final over Fuller (2 minutes 51.855 seconds), while Heather Ticehurst recorded a time of 2 minutes 53.272 seconds in the MMAS2 to finish just outside of medal contention.
Grounds, a former national masters road champion and Ticehurst, a masters road time trial medallist combined with the very strong pursuiter and time trialist in Fuller to take on the women’s team pursuit event.
The Dubbo trio qualified second fastest behind a very strong Illawarra CC squad who had a full complement of four riders, including World Masters Champion Deb Coulls.
Grounds, Ticehurst and Fuller clawed back two seconds off their qualifying time in the gold medal final however were just outside the time set by the Illawarra team.
They therefore finished with silver but did get bragging rights over perennial rivals, Bathurst Cycle Club, whose team finished fourth.
Mike Ticehurst toiled hard in the combined MMAS3 and MMAS4 points race and ultimately finished third in the MMAS3 division after scoring 12 points in the race.
Ticehurst also finished fifth in the MMAS3 scratch race on Sunday, in which Farr claimed silver.
Tim Dawson enjoyed some great success in his two appearances at the Championships.
He won the combined MMAS1 and MMAS2 scratch race and finishing second in the MMAS1 individual pursuit (one kilometre - one minute 10.715 seconds) by only .239 of a second to Tamworth’s Jeremy Bartlett.