More Womens Team Sprint

When I heard that the Womens Team Sprint was back in the Nationals program I sent an email to Cycling NZ president Mark Ireland:

"Hi Mark
It is good to see that the Womens Team Sprint has been reinstated at track nationals, albeit as a demonstration event.

It has been somewhat frustrating that a Championship event that was introduced by the 2003 CNZ AGM, and which was initially extremely successful, was later removed from the Nationals program by a less democratic and transparent process.
It was my understanding that the Womens Team Sprint was introduced, not only because it was a World Cup event at the time, but because it was felt to be a worthwhile addition to the womens events at the national championships.
While the decision to remove it from the program may have been consistent with the philosophy of BikeNZ's elite program it certainly did not serve the interests of Cycling NZ's female membership.
I hope that in future CNZ will be more critical of the decisions of the technical panel."

Marks response:

"I appreciate the feedback, but I feel I must clarify a few points with regards to the processes involved here.

Firstly, the technical panel consists entirely of CNZ personnel. BikeNZ has no involvement on it, although the views of the High Performance team may be sought and from time to time they do make recommendations to the CNZ Council for consideration. The Technical Panel currently consists of two UCI Commissaires (John McDonnell as convenor and Ian Bullock) and myself. Graham Sycamores advice is sometimes sought, with his vast knowledge of international practice.

With regards to the Track programme, the Technical Panel has always taken its principal direction from AGMs, where Centres have submitted remits or there is a forum to specifically debate the matters. This generates an agreed "wish list" of events that the panel then moulds into a workable format.

This was the process followed at the 2003 AGM and was the same at the 2006 AGM, where discussion again formed the basis of the revised programme that was issued recently.

Any format from the technical panel has to then be formally approved by the full CNZ Council.

Hopefully, the womens sprint will be well supported (it had not been previously, one of the reasons it was taken out of the programme) along with the team pursuit.

thanks for taking the time to raise your concerns, your points are noted,

Regards
Mark Ireland"

My response:

"Thanks for the clarification regarding the process.
In turn, I should point out the the 2004 Womens Team Sprint had a larger field than the mens event.
The poor entries in 2005 resulted from the omission of the Womens Team Sprint from the draft program that was distributed to Centres.

Best Wishes
DB"

So, it's good to know that the Nationals program is still in the control of Cycling New Zealand, rather than the elitist megalomaniacs at BikeNZ, but perhaps the CNZ technical panel needs to get out of their smoke filled room and start talking to some of the actual paying membership.

I'm curious whether the event's omission from the 2005 Nationals draft program was merely an oversight, or if there was a conscious decision to delete it and see if anyone complained.