NSWIS Trio Make Junior Track World Championships Team

Three New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) athletes have been named in the Australian team that will compete in the 2023 UCI Junior Track World Championships in Columbia this August.

Central Coast Cycling Club duo (photographed above) Liliya Tatarinoff and Nicole Duncan – the reigning sprint and time trial national champions – have been selected in the 10-rider strong team alongside Keira Will from the Lidcombe-Auburn Cycling Club.

Will was a member of the team pursuit team that set a national record when it won the gold medal at last month’s Oceania Track Cycling Championships.

Donna Rae-Szalinski, AusCycling’s Director of Pathways and convenor of the selection panel, said alongside pathways projects such as next month’s under-17 track camp in Malaysia, these world championships will expose young Australian riders to international racing for the first time.

“It’s a vital part of our pathway objectives in providing athletes with an international experience,” Rae-Szalinski said.

“This is very much about education, about the lifestyle, about seeing what it’s like to compete on an international level. It also allows them to benchmark their personal performance and gauge their trajectory.

“We also want the riders to be the best they can be on the day. They’ve been selected because they’ve met the performance standards, which are about selecting athletes who are medal contenders.”

The UCI Junior Track World Championships is the premier track event for cyclists in the under-19 category; that is, born in 2005 and 2006. Last year, Australia won three medals, including gold in the junior men’s team sprint.

The championships will be held at the Velódromo Alcides Nieto Patiño in Cali, Colombia from August 23–27.

Photograph courtesy of John Veage