Speedster sisters to fly flag for WA

Albany sisters Emily and Danica Wiggins are set to represent WA at the Australian Junior Track Championships in Sydney later this month after cleaning up at the recent State championships.

The young cycling talents brought home a host of medals at the Junior State Titles, held across three days at the Midvale SpeedDome, last month.

Danica, 14, competing in the under-17 women’s category, claimed silver in the sprint event and a bronze in the 500m time trial, while Emily, 12, placed in all her events to grab three gold, two silver and a bronze medal in the under-15 women’s category.

The pair have been making regular trips to Perth, along with their older brother Craig, in recent months to train and compete at the SpeedDome, as there is no indoor cycling track in Albany. Danica said track was a different style of riding from road events.

“It’s fast — you have one gear, and the races are much shorter than road, so it’s just full gas the whole way,” she said.

“It’s good for your skills and helps you improve for road, but because we live down here we do a lot more road riding.”

Danica will compete in the team pursuit event at the nationals and is confident her team can perform.

“We’ve been training specifically for that, so hopefully we can give it a good go,” she said

It will be Emily’s first national event and she said there would be some nerves.

“I’m in my first year and probably half of the field will be in their second year, so they’ll be stronger and they’ve learnt more.” she said.