Commonwealth Champion Back on Boards

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Scott Sunderland will return to the boards this week when he competes for Australia at the London Track World Cup at the Lee Valley VeloPark.

Sunderland knows the venue well, having competed at the 2012 London Olympic Games on the same track, where he finished fourth in the men’s team sprint.

Since the Olympics however, Sunderland has switched attention to endurance events, and will look to form part of Australia’s men’s team pursuit squad.

National Performance Director Kevin Tabotta said the men’s endurance squad represented an exciting period for Australia’s track cycling team with London set to unveil five different riders from the teenage squad that claimed gold in the team pursuit at the first of this year’s track world cups in Mexico, a team that featured WAIS Junior Athlete of the Year Sam Welsford.

“We have exceptional depth in the men’s endurance area right now, which will allow us to start a whole different combination of riders in team pursuit for the London World Cup,” Tabotta said.

Despite being part of Australia’s track endurance surfeit at present, Sunderland made a cameo appearance back in sprint cycling at this year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games, where he retained his Commonwealth title in the 1km time trial, which he achieved with a new Games record.

The Busselton born cyclist will be joined in the green and gold by fellow WAIS scholarship holders Melissa Hoskins and Isabella King, who similar to Sunderland, will ride the team pursuit, but as members of Australia’s women’s TP squad.

Hoskins contested track and road events at this year’s Commonwealth Games, whilst King rode with Hoskins at the UCI Track World Championships in Columbia last February, where the duo picked up a bronze medal in the women’s team pursuit.

In total 19 riders will compete for Australia, with the London Track World Cup running from December 5-7. The World Cup accrues countries qualification points for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.