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Southland's Eddie Dawkins - Source: Photosport
Olympic road racer Joanne Kiesanowski went full circle in her move back to the track glory with a gold medal on the second night of finals at the WHK Oceania Cycling Championships in Invercargill on Thursday.
The 30-year-old from Christchurch took out the elite women's 10,000m scratch race with a telling sprint at the ILT Velodrome.
It also proved a great return for Southland's own Eddie Dawkins who took out the men's Kilo Time Trial with a superb performance, after missing out on qualification for the sprints earlier in the day.
The evening was completed with a brilliant victory for Rotorua's Sam Bewley in the 30km Points Race, when he held out fellow Beijing Olympian Marc Ryan decided in the final sprint.
Kiesanowski last won on the track in the same event in 2000 before moving on to the road fulltime where she has enjoyed a decade of international success including a top-20 in the Olympics, sixth at the Commonwealth Games and a world ranking in the top 30.
She has decided to return to the track and hopes to win a place in the team to next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and is excited about the change after 10 years on the professional road circuits of Europe and the United States.
"I'm loving being back. It's a lot of fun and I am really focussing on the track at the moment. I'm not turning my back on the road and will be back with Team TIBCO in the US again next year.
"I felt that I had never given the track a real go because I was always concentrating on road and tried to do both but the track was really on the side. Now I am changing focus and see what I can do. My big goal is the Commonwealth Games on the track.
"This is really fun. It makes it better when I am winning like tonight. I had to work pretty hard tonight and do a fair bit of the work because I was unsure of the ability of the others so I took it on myself to bridge the gaps."
Kiesanowski is aiming to add the Points Race title tomorrow night and is hoping to move up to some international World Cup races.
