After a six month injury lay-off BMX rider Sarah Walker is back on the bike - but it's not the bike you might think.
The 2012 Olympic BMX silver medallist is training at the Velodrome as she prepares to compete at the Track Nationals in Invercargill in February, with the long term goal of competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the newly-added women's team sprint event.
BMX hasn't yet become a Commonwealth Games sport, and Walker found the temptation of the track cycling too much to resist.
"I'm not saying that I'm going to be any good at track cycling and I have no idea if I even have a chance or not," she confessed.
"I do know what the girls do in the gym here and they're extremely strong and powerful and they're amazing riders.
"I'm not going to say it's easy at all, but I just know that I'll give it a hundred per cent over the next two months, race the national champs, and see if there's any potential whatsoever."
But it doesn't mean she's giving up BMX.
After the track nationals Walker will return to BMX to ride in two World Cups ahead of the World Championships in July. In August she'll be back at the Velodrome.
"I'll have August, September, October and November, and then December they select the Commonwealth Games team. So there's another five months to get a little bit more training, a little bit more understanding, a little bit more technique to see if I have what it takes to make the team."
Walker says either way it's a win-win situation. If the track experiment doesn't work out - at least it's good cross-training for BMX.
"Worst case scenario is that I'm going to be really fast on my BMX bike, so that's an amazing worst case scenario."
Walker's first foray into competitive track cycling will be this weekend, when she races in the 500 metre time trial at the Waikato Regional Championships.
Newshub.
