ICC Rides Strong at the 2020 NSW Masters Track Championships

Gary Mandy, Shane Dirks, James Robinson and Deb Coulls represented the ICC at the 2020 New Masters Track Championships, 13-16 Feb and collectively brought home an impressive medal haul of 7 gold, 4 silver, 1 individual bronze and 1 team sprint bronze.

On the first day, Gary and Shane both won their gold sprint finals. Gary qualified over a full second faster than his next competitor in 11.474 seconds and appeared to win his MWAS7 sprint final easily.  Shane’s MMAS3 flying 200m qualifier time of 10.956 was exceptionally quick, it was also only 0.091 seconds outside his 2019 world qualifier time despite only recently returning to the track after breaking his collarbone in November last year. James was up against his training partner, Shane in the MMAS3 sprint final and collected silver.  Deb qualified third in WMAS6-7 but battled it out to also collect silver.

On day two, Gary and Shane left little doubt as to why they are the current world individual time trial champions, easily winning their MMAS7 and MMAS3 events in 34.8 seconds (500m) and 48.820 seconds (750m) respectively.  Once again, Shane was only 0.272 seconds outside his rainbow jersey ride of 48.548 seconds.  James took out the silver in a good time and Deb collected the bronze.  Later Deb won the WMAS 6+ points race in a dominating fashion by winning every sprint. James also took home his first NSW gold medal in the MMAS3 age category points race with a gutsy move leading out and winning one of the sprints in a fast MMAS1-4 combined race.  Gary did an excellent job mixing it up with the enduros winning silver in his MMAS7 points race with only one point less than the winner.

On Saturday Gary, James and Shane won bronze in the MMAS135+ team sprint.  Unfortunately there was less than 0.5 second separating them from the gold final.   However the ICC “Triumvirates’ won the bronze in style, catching their competitors from Nowra in the last lap.  James was the only ICC rider to take up the challenge of the individual pursuit and finished his 3000m in a credible 4th place.

Deb won the ICC’s last gold medal on Sunday in the WMAS5-7 scratch race. Up against faster sprinters that were still in the pack towards the end of the race, Deb shook things up by making a break for it with 3.5 laps to go.  She crossed the line second but the gamble paid off to win her age category.

Additionally Gary was awarded with the NSW CF Mens Masters 7 Cyclist of the Year Award.

Photos courtesy of Cycling NSW and St George Cycle Club

Thanks to Deb Coulls for the great write up!!!!