11 hours ago
Breakthrough third for Kiwi teen in Italy
Rotorua teenager Kate Hastings earned a breakthrough podium in the latest round of the UCI downhill world series in Italy yesterday.
The 17-year-old claimed third place in the junior women's final at the fourth round of the series on the infamous Black Snake downhill track at Val di Sole.
Hastings, who won a European Cup race last weekend in Austria, is the younger sister of former junior downhill world champion and current Pivot Factory elite Jenna Hastings.
Qualifying second-fastest, Hastings was strong on the top half of the course before powering home impressively on the bottom half to finish just 2.78sec behind winner and series leader Rosa Zierl, of Austria.
It capped another outstanding display for Kiwi downhill junior women with four riders in the top eight in the final. Rotorua rider Bellah Birchall was fifth, in-form Tauranga rider Eliana Hulsebosch seventh and Queenstown rider Indy Deavoll eighth.
Hulsebosch is second in the overall standings behind Zierl. Birchall is fifth, Hastings seventh and Deavoll 10th.
Four-time elite national champion Jess Blewitt (Cube Factory, Queenstown) again showed she is in world-class form with fifth in the elite women's final, following her fifth in Leogang, to move her inside the top 10 overall.
Fourth out of the starting gate, Blewitt was brilliant on the bottom half of the run to claim the top spot, where she remained until the final four riders.
Compatriot Sacha Earnest, in her rookie season, finished 14th in the final.
While the New Zealand junior men did not reach the podium this round, there were three Kiwis in the top seven, led by Hawke's Bay rider Tyler Waite, who looked to be adding to his two podiums this year. He took the lead with a consistently fast run until pipped by the Alran brothers and American Asa Vermette to finish fourth by a slim margin.
Waite remains second on the overall standings. Last-round winner Oli Clark was fifth yesterday and is fifth on the standings, while Jonty Williamson (Palmerston North) was seventh yesterday and is sixth on points.
There were no Kiwis to qualify in the elite men's race, which was won by outstanding young Canadian Jackson Goldstone.
There is a two-week break for downhill riders before the fifth round of the world series, in the Alps at La Thuile Valle D'Aosta, in northern Italy. — APL
