It was victory on home soil for the exciting Deavoll.
The Queenstown rider, who is the Continental Series leader in the junior category, posted an excellent time of 3min 12.02sec.
That was the fastest time over all grades as she won the elite women’s downhill title while still in the under-19 category.
Fellow Queenstown rider and Cube Factory professional Jess Blewitt, the four-time New Zealand champion, rode the second-fastest women’s time of 3min 15.39sec.
Another under-19 rider, Bellah Birchall (Rotorua), was third.
Waite, who has won three rounds of the Continental Series in the junior category, continued his outstanding season with the men’s victory.
The Hawke’s Bay rider, who will ride on the world stage for the crack Yeti Fox Factory Gravity team this year, clocked 2min 47.82sec for the 1.8km course.
Rory Meek, a local star on the rise, was second, just 0.2sec behind Waite, with Queenstown’s Malik Boatwright 3sec back.
It was a long time in the hot seat for Waite as he waited for the elite category riders to finish.
Luke Meier-Smith (Australia) was the fastest in 2min 51sec, which meant Waite was crowned the men’s Oceania downhill champion as the fastest rider overall. Fellow junior riders Meek and Boatwright filled the other top spots on the podium.
Earlier, New Zealand stars Anton Cooper and Sammie Maxwell claimed the cross-country short-track honours.
Cooper, who had his championship cross-country race thwarted with a flat, timed his run to perfection to claim the elite men’s title from Saturday’s champion, Australian rider Sam Fox, and Rotorua’s Sam Shaw.
"After yesterday’s issues I would have been pretty bummed not to walk away with one title," Cooper, who now joins his Lapierre Racing Unity professional team for the world cup series starting in Brazil, said.
"I wanted to take a different approach today and spent most of the race at fourth to sixth wheel. I knew I had to move forward on the last couple of laps and made a big attack on the last climb."
It was a successful double for Decathlon Ford professional Maxwell, who streeted the opposition to claim women’s honours ahead of Australia’s Zoe Cuthbert and Christchurch’s Mary Gray. — APL
