Palmerston North teenager Campbell Stewart has become a double world champion after winning the omnium at the Junior Track Cycling World Championships in Kazakhstan.
Campbell Stewart in action Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Stewart recovered from a crash in the final points race to win the gruelling six-discipline event, to go with the 16-year-old's world title in the scratch race on the opening day.
He joins the great Sarah Ulmer (1994 in Quito) and current team pursuit world champion Regan Gough (2014 in Korea) as double rainbow jersey winners at the junior world championships, one behind the three gold medals won by sprinter Sam Webster in Moscow in 2009.
It brings New Zealand's tally to six medals, bettered only by the 10 medals won in Moscow in 2011 and at home in Invercargill in 2012 - each won with significantly bigger teams that the eight-strong squad that ventured in Kazakhstan.
The team earlier won two titles with the women's team pursuit breaking the world record on their way to an emphatic victory in the final over Australia.
It was the first time a New Zealand women's team pursuit had won the coveted rainbow jerseys, and just the second time any New Zealand female won a gold medal at the junior worlds since Ulmer in 1994.
Campbell Stewart is congratulated by coach Ross Machejefski after winning the omnium world title Photo: Cycling New Zealand
The celebrations continued when Manawatu prospect Stewart prevailed in the final sprint of the men's 10km scratch race, the first time a New Zealand rider won that title in nearly 50 years of the competition.
The women's quartet of Bryony Botha (Auckland), Michaela Drummond (Palmerston North), Madeleine Park (Auckland) and Holly White (Auckland) dominated their final against Australia, not only winning comfortably but breaking the world record in the process.
Manawatu rider Madeleine Park said the gold medal had not sunk in.
"It is pretty surreal feeling to come to my first world championships and my first race and coming out a world champion," Park said.
"It was an awesome ride from start to finish. Everyone did exactly to plan. It's an added bonus to come out with a world record as well."
