A FEW years ago, former Bathurst sporting prodigy Danielle McKinnirey had to make a choice between basketball, a sport in which she had a good grounding and history, and cycling, which she had taken up almost by accident.
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Fast forward to the present day, and she is the Union Cycliste Internationale’s number one ranked female under 19 individual pursuit rider on the planet.
McKinnirey has been selected to head to Kazakhstan later this year as part of the Australian team for the Junior World Championships where she will aim to defend her title in the teams pursuit.
She came away from Korea in 2014 as part of the winning team, and she will be the only member of that quartet returning to try to win a second.
She is also likely to line up in several individual events, though that won’t be confirmed until the team reaches Kazakhstan for the August competition.
It is a long way to come for a girl who first made a sporting impact in Bathurst as a pint-sized hockey player before donning the Bathurst Goldminers basketball singlet, prior to her family’s shift to South Australia.
“I’m still not really sure how I feel about it [the number one ranking]. It is a massive thing to try and think about,” the 18-year-old said.
“I only got told two weeks ago, and thinking about not only the other Australian riders who compete in my age group but the international ones, it is a pretty special thing.”
McKinnirey holds two national titles, having claimed the Australian Omnium Championship in December before beginning 2015 with a bang courtesy of the national individual pursuit crown.
It kicked off a huge 12 months for her, not only on the bike but in the classroom.
“I’m doing Year 12 at the moment and it is pretty full-on even without cycling,” she said.
“And the cycling part on its own is pretty full-on, even without considering Year 12, so it is tough to balance the two. Hopefully I can just get through this year, get Year 12 out of the way and then concentrate on my riding.”
To give an idea of how hard the juggling act is, on a given day McKinnirey might have to get up at 4am to start training, be at school by 9am, and make sure she gets to the South Australian Sports Institute by 4pm for more training.
It was the institute itself which discovered her then-hidden ability on two wheels after she had done some testing for basketball. That data led them to encourage her to take up riding.
Clearly she hasn’t looked back.
Now the race is on to try to get sorted for another shot at world glory, and McKinnirey says she and her team-mates have a good shot at it.
“I think with the right training behind us, even with three first-year riders in the team, we can do it,” she said.
“Most of the teams last year were made up of second-year riders, so they will have all changed quite a bit, too. It would be awesome to win two in a row.
“We don’t know until we get there which individual events, if any, we’ll be riding in. They pick the squad first and then they decide which of the four of us will be riding in what races. You aren’t necessarily guaranteed a ride at all aside from the team pursuit.”
The challenge between now and then is to raise enough money to get to Kazakhstan, and to do it McKinnirey has opened a fundraising page on website www.gofundme.com.
Visit http://www.gofundme.com/n0yyz4.
