Wright Comes Close To World Champ Status

At Velo Sports Centre, Los Angeles, a Mackay cyclist came within touching distance of a world championship win.

Mackay athlete Hamish Wright competed in three events across the 2022 Masters Track Cycling World Championships, bringing home a double of top three ribbons.

It’s Wright’s best World Championship outing, having beaten his previous effort in Los Angeles in 2017 where he cracked a third-place finish for his best performance.

This time in the US, he started slow: a seventh-place finish in the 750-metre time trial, before cracking the sound barrier and shooting up to the podium in the team sprint and the singles sprint.

Competing in the Men's 45-49 category, Wright is a sprint specialist.

He had a poor qualifying time in his first sprint, though, which saw him seeded ninth, meaning to progress to the quarter finals, he had to ride a sudden death race against the 3rd fastest qualifier which was a rider from the Czech Republic.

Hamish won convincingly which put him into the quarter finals.

Progressing to the quarter finals, he faced an American, and they were both very closely matched. Hamish won in two of the best of three sets, but both were photo finishes: 0.007 and 0.004 of a second.

There is a technique called “throwing of the bike”, which is something sprinters practice to push their bikes out as they cross the line, similar to how runners lunge when they cross.

It was the throw that won Hamish those races to progress to the semi-finals.

In the semis, he faced a rider from France who was the fastest qualifier. Wright won the first, the Frenchman won the second, so it went to a deciding third race where Wright caused an upset.

It's unheard of for the ninth-place qualifier to knock out the top seed.

The gold medal race came and it was against another American - the second fastest seed. They had close races but ultimately, Hamish came in second best.

Although he was disappointed to come so close, Wright managed to achieve his major goal of continuing to improve, even with a demanding training, life, and work balancing act.

“Trying to commit enough time to train at the level I need to, to be competitive at a world level, is challenging, overlaying that with a demanding work schedule,” Wright said of his finish

Hamish works for Holcim Concrete as an Area Operations Manager which involves long hours any time of the day or night depending on the contracts they are supplying at the time.

"Having an understanding boss in Townsville and working for a supportive business like Holcim makes it possible for me to chase my aspirations on the bike while building a rewarding career,” he said.

For Wright, the most important was the camaraderie of racing and competition that he’d found along the way – although a few medals did make it all the better.

"I've made friends across Australia and the World competing at various events. These events are serious when we're on the track, there's no love lost, especially during sprinting when you're elbow-to-elbow with someone travelling more than 60 km/hr heading towards the finish line; but afterwards there's time for a beer and a chat. You become mates,” he said.

He finished third place in the team sprint, and second in the singles sprint.

It is his first World Champs winning two medals.

‍