The CyclingSA Executive Board and Track commission wish to congratulate the following riders who have qualified and have been selected to represent South Africa at the 2021 UCI Junior Track World Championships from 1 – 5 September 2021.
The riders who have qualified are
- Women Endurance: Chante Olivier
- Men Sprint: James Swart and Rudolph Labuschagne
- Men Endurance: Chanton Perrins and Joshua Dike
More information on the event can be found at juniortrackworldscairo.com
TIME STANDARDS PHILOSOPHY
Earlier this year, the CyclingSA Track Commission introduced an addition to the Junior selection criteria. CyclingSA will now be utilising a Time Standards (TS) philosophy intending to improve South African cyclists’ performances at international events.
In addition to aiding selectors in ensuring a fair selection process, the Time Standards (TS) approach allows the assessment of whether the team is at a competitive level and will enable riders and coaches to assess their performances against the TS outlined at any time.
As we have tracks at sea level and altitude in addition to indoor and outdoor facilities ranging in length, leniency has been applied to encourage riders to meet the time standards to participate at this year’s Junior World Championships.
An example of the TS established for 2021 is the time of 3:35 set for the 3km pursuit. Considering a one-second per kilometer gain that occurs on a wooden track, this would translate to a time of 3:32, which equates to the last place at Junior World Championships in 2019.
The time standards stipulated each year will apply to all tracks across South Africa. The CyclingSA Track Commission will update the time standards as riders’ times improve to ensure that the level of performance increases.
However, as these standards are already lenient, should no riders meet the time standards going forward, the current time standards will remain, and no team will be sent to the 2022 Junior World Championships. The same will be applied for the 2022 African Continental Championships, though at a lower time standard which the track selectors will make available.
We encourage Youth riders (U17) to start to familiarise themselves with the standards they will need to meet in the future to be eligible for selections going forward.
