Southland cyclist preparing for second junior world champs
Riley Faulkner, the current New Zealand sprint champion, was part of the team sprint that won the silver medal last year in China.
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Southland cyclist Riley Faulkner is preparing to line up at another Junior Track World Championships after her selection in a 10-strong New Zealand team.
Faulkner competed at the 2024 Junior Track World Championships and will return to the 2025 event to be held in the Netherlands in August.
The 17-year-old will join fellow sprinter Alex Schuler (Cambridge) as returnees for this year’s Junior Track World Championships.
Faulkner, the current New Zealand sprint champion, was part of the team sprint that won the silver medal last year in China.
The New Zealand team includes six males and four females. There are three females from Canterbury comprising 17-year-old Sophie Maxwell and two 16-year-olds in the well-performed Shaylah Sayers and Jesse Thomson.
Sayers won the national junior titles in omnium, points, and scratch races and was runner-up in the scratch race at the Oceania Championships.
Maxwell won the national junior individual pursuit and was runner-up in the omnium, points, and elimination, where she also finished second in the Oceania Championships, while Thomson was a medallist in the individual pursuit and scratch race.
Schuler, 18, will be joined by Ben Murphy (Cambridge) and Flynn Underwood (Hamilton) in the men’s team sprint, after the combination won the Oceania Championship title recently. Schuler is the national junior sprint and keirin champion.
The male endurance riders comprise the Auckland pair of Hunter Dalton, the elimination national champion, and the highly promising 16-year-old in David Kwon (Auckland), who was runner-up in the national championships in omnium, points and elimination.
Rounding out the exciting squad is Otago’s national omnium winner Joshua Grieve.
The Championships take place in the renowned velodrome at the Omnisport complex in Apeldoorn from 20 to 24 August 2025.
Track is the only cycling discipline that has a stand-alone UCI World Championships dedicated to Junior riders only. In total, 22 titles of UCI World Champion are at stake, including the six Olympic events of - keirin, madison, omnium, sprint, team pursuit and team sprint along with elimination, individual pursuit, points race, scratch and time trial.
The championships return to Europe for the first time in three years, with Apeldoorn having hosted the UCI Track World Championships in 2011 and 2018; the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in 2015 and 2019; and two rounds of the Track Champions League.
The New Zealand team is:
Female: Riley Faulkner (Southland), 17; Sophie Maxwell (Canterbury), 17; Shaylah Sayers (Canterbury), 16; Jesse Thomson (Canterbury), 16.
Male: Hunter Dalton (Auckland), 18; Joshua Grieve (Otago), 17; David Kwon (Auckland), 16; Ben Murphy (Cambridge), 17; Alex Schuler (Cambridge), 18; Flynn Underwood (Hamilton), 18.
Non-travelling reserve: Miles Preena (Auckland), 17.