A history-making ride from Danny Barber was the highlight of a massive weekend for Dubbo Cycle Club athletes at the under 15 and under 17 NSW Championships.
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Barber set an Australian record in the sprint, becoming the first Australian under 17 rider to break the 11 second mark. He finished with an incredible time of 10.873 second in the flying 200m sprint and his new record time equates to a speed of 66.2km/hr.
"Last year at nationals I did 11.1 and I was very happy with that time," the teenager said after the stunning effort.
"This year I was hoping to get around the 11-zeroes or sub-11. I was kind of thinking in my head I could do it, but it was kind of a surprise when I looked up and I had done it."
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While Barber was astonished by his own effort in the sprint, it didn't cause him to get too distracted at the carnival.
He finished the championships with a haul of five gold medals and one silver from the six events completed.
Barber's memorable riding was just one part of the successful weekend for the Dubbo club.
As well as his record time, there was a swag of other medals won by Dubbo riders while personal bests were also recorded.
Dylan Eather dominated the under 17 Individual Pursuit, taking gold by more than five seconds, setting him up as one of the form riders in that event coming into the national championships.
Eather returned home with one gold and four silver medals. Mitchell Hines featured strongly on the podium with silver in the sprint event being a highlight of his weekend along with a personal best time for bronze in the time trial. Between the three under 17 Dubbo riders Barber, Eather and Hines claimed every gold and silver medal on offer and claimed 15 of the 18 medals available.
Haylee Fuller skipped the shorter sprint events to concentrate on her speciality endurance races and it paid off. Fuller took gold in a very competitive Individual Pursuit event, bringing her road form on to the track. She backed up to dominate all comers in the 50 lap points race, lapping most of the field. One rider she could lap in the points race was cousin Zara Fuller. In her first year riding in the under 17 category Zara showed her endurance being one of only 5 riders who was able to finish on the lead lap.
Isabelle Russell, as a first year under 15 rider, featured very strongly all weekend and was the only NSW first year under 15 rider to medal in a very strong field. Russel came home with two silver medals, in the scratch race and the Kieran while also making the bronze medal ride off in the Individual pursuit. The results cemented her status as one to watch in coming years.
Trent Hines put it all together in the under 15 men’s competition bringing home two bronze medals in the Time Trial and Points Race while narrowly missing the podium in the scratch race. Hines was joined in the under 15s by Louis Russell who competed very strongly all weekend.
In added recognition for the riders and community of Dubbo, Danny Barber and Haylee Fuller were awarded the NSW under 17 Men’s and NSW under 17 Women’s Cyclist of the Year Awards.
These awards were recognition for the young riders' efforts in 2018 and is a great achievement as both athletes were first year competitors in their age category during 2018 and qualify for the same award during 2019.
