Sport

Cycling pro provides a boost

Five aspiring Wānaka athletes and their teammates were delighted at the weekend to spend time with professional racing cyclist Reuben Thompson.

Thompson rides for UCI Continental team Groupama-FDJ. Last July, he celebrated the biggest win of his career, taking home all the main jerseys in the Giro della Valle d'Aosta. He will ride again in Europe during 2022 before joining as a rider in the World Tour from 2023.

On Friday morning, the cyclists had just ridden up the Remarkables when Reuben joined them on the road for a chat and a “relaxed” ride up Coronet Peak - a very familiar hill, as he grew up in Queenstown.

On Saturday he came over to Wānaka to spend an evening with the team, including a questionand-answer session.

Carter Guichard, 15, said that it was “awesome” to spend a few hours with a pro rider.

“It’s not every day you get to spend time with a pro cyclist and ask him anything, plus be on a bike alongside him. It was so cool that Reuben took time out of his training schedule to share his experiences as a kiwi rider in Europe.”

Southern Junior is a development team registered with Cycling New Zealand. The team is based in Wānaka and has five riders from Wānaka (McKay Watson, Carter Guichard, Max Good, Hugo Sinclair and Josh Moody), Eli Tregidga from Queenstown and riders Tom Kerr and Magnus Jamieson from Invercargill.

In the first race of the season on January 16, three of the team achieved top 10 finishes in the Criterium Nationals in Christchurch in the U17 age group. The boys are working towards a block of races over the next three months, culminating in Road Cycling Nationals, which will take place in Hokitika in April.

Hugo Sinclair of Wānaka was able to chat with Reuben Thompson as the team headed to Coronet Peak.

Swimmers get tips from the best

Here’s how – coach Thomas Ansorg talks to swim club members. Former Olympic coach Thomas Ansorg has been working with Wānaka Swimming Club members.

Ansorg has been a coach at three Olympic Games as well as numerous World Championships and Commonwealth Games. He has coached several Olympic and World Championship finalists including Moss Burmester who won the gold medal in the 200 Butterfly at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and was fourth in the same event at the 2008 Olympic Games then won the World Short Course Championships in the same year.

He has been either a Swimming New Zealand Coach or Head Coach at North Shore Swimming Club since arriving in New Zealand in 2002 and before that ran a successful club in South Africa Justin Carnie from CDL Building sponsored Thomas' trip to Wānaka and the coach took technique clinics with the club's competitive swimmers and helped with coach education, mentoring and club structure. “The swimmers all had a great time and learned a lot from Thomas, we hope he will be back again soon,” club spokesperson Ben Bagley told The Wānaka Sun. The club has three coaches - Jackson Reardon, Cameron Stanley and Belinda Donaldson.

A good crowd gathered for the first night of Bowls3Five last Friday. Bowl up, bowl up – it’s the young ones’ time

No longer can a lawn bowling green be descibed as “a waiting room for Heaven”.

With encouragement from Bowls New Zealand, the Hāwea Bowling Club is introducing the sport to a younger generation.

Over the next five Friday nights, the club is hosting a Bowls3Five night for players who are keen to try their hand at bowls. Teams of three players compete over five ends, and already there are signs emerging of fierce competition ahead in coming weeks.

Hāwea Bowling Club president Gary Vogel is delighted with the response to the new competition. “It’s wonderful to see so many younger people wanting to have a go at the game”, Gary said.

Sixteen teams have entered the competition with equal numbers of men and women taking part. Prizes are awarded each night of the competition and the overall winners will receive a significant sum of hard-earned money as well as the Vogel Trophy.

The club hopes to attract some new members to take part in more serious competition next season.

“We’re a growing club,” Gary said. “We have strong links to the Hāwea community, but we welcome people from further afield as well”.

A number of players from the Hāwea club are playing for the Central Otago team this year. The club holds an open evening every Thursday night from 5pm and anyone interested in joining the club is welcome.