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After becoming Junior World
Sprint Champion in 2014, Courtney Field had her eyes set on
one thing a defence of the title in Astana in 2015. The
journey has seen Field change coaches, claim two Oceania
titles, her 19th Australian title, deal with disappointment
and a series of injuries in the months ahead of the World
Championships.
Field claimed two silver medals in the sprint and keirin,
broke the Australian record in the team sprint and set new
personal bests of 19.579 for the opening lap of the team
sprint, 35.537 in the 500m time trial and 11.323
narrowly missing out on the Australian record in the flying
200, that was set at altitude and has stood for over 20 years.
As Field's time as a junior comes to a close with 19
Australian titles, 2 Oceania titles, 2014 Junior World Sprint
Champion and four World Championship silver medals she is
ready for the next step. Below she talks the journey of her
2015 Junior Worlds campaign and racing her final event as a
junior.
This is my story from my whole experience from the 2015 Junior
Track World Championships in Astana Kazakhstan and everything
leading up to it. From last years win at the 2014 Junior World
Championships in the sprint all the way to the 60-hour trip on
the way home.
After having a major success last year in Korea, I had to come
back with a plan to refocus and reset my goals to make it to
my second and last Junior World Championships. After the world
championships last year I decided that I was ready for a
change. I changed coaches to my new coach (Head cycling coach
at the Victorian Institute of sport) Glenn Doney and its fair
to say it was the best decision of my life. As an athlete and
a person I have grown and learnt to push myself to new levels
on the bike and in the gym. Changing my mind set to loving the
gym so I can become a bigger and stronger athlete. If I never
had this change I don't think I would be where I am today. I
needed to not think about being a skinny sprinter and come to
terms myself with what I needed so I could be the best female
junior track sprinter in the world, which took some time but I
have never looked back. Everything about me has improved
immensely from who I was one year ago.
After having a month or so break after 2014 Junior Worlds, I
set my sights on the Oceania Championships, the National
Championships and possibly junior worlds again.
I had one month to get fit enough for the Oceania
Championships, with a new coach it was going to be difficult.
It was a lot of hard work but we got there and I was
undefeated in every event, which meant so much to me because
it was my first time wearing the rainbow jersey.
The next thing I needed was to set my sights on nationals, and
for me it was held in my training ground. Which is either
really good (because you know the track) or not so good
(because you are more relaxed). For me it wasn't so great.
Fortunately for me I was probably in the best form of my life
to date, Glenn had trained me well, my start had improved and
I had got a little bit stronger. Unfortunately I had a
terrible week. I flew in the team sprint, fastest time ever by
an under 19 in Australia in the first lap which was a huge
improvement from last year and I got silver in the team sprint
with Caitlin Ward to the team of Rikki Belder, Steph Morton
and Anna Meares, so I was stoked. The next day wasn't easy
after doing the team sprints but I managed to back up and win
the 500 TT, which was great, but after that race everything
seemed to go down hill.
I didn't contest the keirin because it was before the sprints
and I didn't want to risk a fall. Unfortunately the pressure
from wearing the world stripes got to me and I didn't perform
how I would have liked to. It was the first time I was ever
beaten in a match sprint and I finished third. After that I
wasn't so sure if I was going to make the junior worlds team
as 2 other girls had performed amazing in my age group as
well.
After the national championships I went on a holiday to Perth
for 6 weeks, as I didn't think that I was going to make the
team. But luckily for me while I was there I got the phone
call to say I was in, and they are taking 3 girls instead of
2, as they do pretty much every year.
I came home and set up a program to get myself in peak form
for junior worlds, from then it wasn't such a smooth ride, it
had a lot of ups and downs, I got injury after injury and then
I got sick a few times which caused me to have 11 weeks
completely off training in the 7 month period of January
through to August. It wasn't the best lead up that I could of
hoped for but things like this happen and there was nothing
that I could have done.
During the lead up we had our first junior worlds track camp
and it was held around a big international event called ITS
which was held in Adelaide. Our training camp was hard and it
was the first time we had been together as a team. New Zealand
and China were there and they just dominated, it was a real
wake up call. They just rode away from us and we just could
not catch them. We knew we had a lot of work to do and I
learnt a lot from that camp.
The time was here, it was August and it was time for us to go
to our second junior worlds training camp. There was nothing
more that we could do about fitness and health now, we got all
of our Australian clothes and had to take care of ourselves
for 10 days. Cook, clean, wash, keep the rooms tidy and do
food shopping, which was all fine. After the training camp we
had to pack all our bikes, wheels and tools to get ready to
put in the plane for the long trip to Astana. It was the
longest trip I have ever done, 8 hours to Singapore, a 10 hour
stop over, a 13 hour flight to Frankfurt, a 13 hour stop over
and a 6 hour flight to Astana and we were finally there!
We got there and we transported hundreds of kilos of stuff to
the bus from the airport, then from the bus to the velodrome
and inside. We got to see it and it was amazing, it was huge,
well that's what it felt like anyway. The boards were
different colour, the bends were different, and it was warm. I
was pretty excited to race. Fortunately for us Mikey, Matt
Gilmore and Jason Niblett unpacked all our bikes, wheels and
tools for us. We were so lucky. We only got there 4 days
before racing started compared to some other countries that
got there a week before it started, so we had to focus on
sleeping, eating and recovering a lot. Before I knew it, it
was race day. The people for the first 3 events were selected
in the women's sprint events.
Day 1
The first event was the team sprint, I had been looking
forward to this event for a while to see what sort of first
lap time I could pull out. I had never used the gate before
only heard what it sounds like. I hadn't been on the track
that day. It was pretty exciting. I got out of the gate well
and did the second fastest start of the girl's event with a PB
so I was stoked. We qualified 3rd. Round 2 I got out of the
gate quiet well strange for me that I didn't go as fast as my
qualifying round but it was okay, we ended up getting 4th. I
had to cool down and focus on the next day.
Day 2
The second event was the 500 and I was feeling the pressure as
I got second last year and I was ranked number 1 for this
event, so I went off last. Before I went the world record was
broken. By a first year! It was an amazing time, it didn't
startle me too much because I had prepared for that to happen
anyway. I didn't get off to a good start, I pulled my front
wheel up and then I hit so many of the foam things on the duck
boards the whole race. I was still in medal contention until
the last 150m and I just blew up. So that was upsetting but I
held myself together as I still had 3 more days of racing to
go.
Day 3
Today was the day; it was the day that I had been waiting for
for a year. The sprint day, my favourite event and the event
that I won my first ever world championship gold and rainbow
jersey. I knew that if I qualified in the top 5 I had a good
chance of medalling. I needed to focus on my flying 200 as
that is one of my weak spots in racing. I qualified 3rd and I
was so proud of myself, and I did a great time, only a few
hundredths out of the Australian record that has been held for
about 20 years. Going into the first round I had someone much
slower than me but I couldn't be complacent as this is Worlds
and anything can happen. Some of the big hitters actually got
knocked out in the first round as well, so I was shocked. I
won all my rounds on this day and I felt really good, now it
was time to focus for the semi finals and finals day.
Day 4
Today was finals day, I knew either tonight I could come home
being world champion again or I could come home not winning
the event that I did last year. But every year is different
and you can never treat them the same. I actually read the
wrong time that I was meant to leave for the track and I was 1
hour late to the session. I had to completely change my warm
up and get ready in the bus, leg oil and everything as there
is no car that can just take me whenever I want. But it was
okay, going into the semi finals I knew exactly how to race
this girl thanks to CA videoing all the races from the day
before. I won my match sprints in straight heats and now I was
going into the finals with the German that qualified first and
broke the world record in the team sprint. She had won all her
races all year and I knew she was the one to beat. In the
first round I made a big error in not riding fast enough and
she just rode away and in the second round she was just better
than me. I was pretty devastated but I knew I had got the ride
for the keirin tomorrow and that I felt good still.
Day 5
I woke up with amazing legs, I was surprised how good I felt
and I was out for blood in this race. I really wanted to win.
It was a full day of racing so we had to get up early and pack
and then you have breaks between races that are sometimes 2
hours but you cant go back to the hotel, and then sometimes
you will have breaks that are 10 minutes.
First round I had a strong field but I had luckily not drawn
any of the big hitters, I won the first round and felt really
good. I had a 2 or 3 hour break but had to stay at the track
like the other days, so I go into the stands or in the
corridors and lay on Mavic wheel bags so the ground is not
cold and it is soft so I can rest. I did that all week so I
was used to it by now, I was having liquid meals and plain
rice because I was struggling to eat. I knew I had 2 rounds
left and I needed to be well rested. Round 2, I raced well,
and I felt like I had the legs to win the keirin, and I was
racing smart. The final was 15 minutes after round 2. I was
the only Aussie in the final and Tahlay just won the 7-12th
before I had to go up for my race so I had lots of adrenalin.
I got the motorbike in the final like I had in every other
race and the 2 top seeds were behind me. The laps were slowly
ticking down as the race went by and everyone got into
position, and I can remember it clearly the Polish girl jumped
over me and I was happy because I was in a good position that
I didn't use as much energy and when the German that had
beaten me in the sprint and I rode around her I still wasn't
panicked and then it came into the bell lap and I didn't make
the winning move and go over the German when I had the chance
and the race was still slower, I didn't back myself. I was
stuck next to her the whole last lap on the outside and just
lost. It was hard because as soon as I got off I knew that I
didn't make the move I should of and that's why I lost the
race. But I can now say I wont make that mistake again.
Overall I think the event was well run and I made a lot of
friends from the experience. I wouldn't trade the experience
for anything and now I'm moving up to the senior ranks to race
the best of the best in the elite women and I'm extremely
excited to learn from and race the world's best female track
sprint cyclists.
Courtney's blog from the 2014 Junior Track World Championships
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