Former Olympics rower Sonia Waddell is among a line-up of women's athletes joining BikeNZ's women's track programme.

 

Champions from other sports such as skater Nicole Begg, runner Kate McIlroy and mountainbike rider Vanessa Quin have thrown their support behind the Power to the Podium programme.

 

 

 

BikeNZ wants to unearth female athletes to form a talent pool through to the 2012 Olympics in London and beyond.

 

Waddell, Begg, McIlroy and Quin are among 20 who have made the cut to advance the the next phase of the selection process.

 

BikeNZ launched its talent search in September and received 100 applications, which also included one from champion kickboxer Karen Lynch.

 

The aim is to at least equal in London the men's track team's achievement of securing two medals at the Beijing Olympics.

 

BikeNZ had particularly wanted to hear from athletes with an endurance background such as rowing, running and triathlon.

 

New Zealand's national track coach Tim Carswell said: "They were quite a number of outstanding applications – we had world champions from different disciplines apply."

 

Single sculler Waddell, the 2001 world silver medallist in the quadruple sculls who retired from rowing after the Athens Olympics, said she was excited by the opportunity.

 

Waddell said husband, Rob, who staged his comeback to rowing late last year for a tilt at the Beijing Olympics, had encouraged her to try a new sport.

 

She was also inspired by Romero who won the individual pursuit at the Beijing Olympics after winning a world title and an Olympics silver medal in Athens in rowing.

 

The 35-year-old Waddell said: "Rob felt my sports career should not be over just because I've had three children.

 

"Our family's basically complete and I'm ready for a new challenge and a new goal and this is an incredibly exciting one.

 

"It's a completely new sport for me but there have been lot of examples of rowers successfully turning to cycling and there's a lot of compatibility between the two sports."

 

It could be the third sport that Waddell has represented New Zealand in.

 

She also competed for them in the 400 metres hurdles at the 1990 World Junior Championships.

 

Waddell said: "In single sculling, I have had to tolerate that pain from lactic acid buildup for about seven minutes, so one good thing is that the pursuit is a shorter race.

 

"I've been in a very, very tough sport so I am under no illusions what I'm headed for."

 

BikeNZ performance programme manager Andy Reid said it had been tough to shortlist from the 100 high quality applications received.

 

The selected athletes would be tested this month with the best going to Invercargill for a training camp from December 13-18.

 

Carswell said the plan was to narrow the field down to possibly four riders by March before the World Championships in Poland and "look for a rider pop out of there to carry on for the next four years – it's a big ask, a big commitment [for the riders picked]."