Jacob Schriek

The New Zealand cycling community was rocked when popular former Commonwealth Games rider Jacob Schriek died of a heart attack while competing in the Motatapu Icebreaker mountainbike event near Wanaka in 2009.

As Cycling Southland manager Bruce Ross said, Schriek “was a very good official and a great person indeed. He’ll be sadly missed.”

The Riversdale police officer, a Senior Constable, was 55 and had previously experienced heart problems. He’d had triple bypass surgery and had then taken part in the Motatapu race in 2008.

A father of three, he’d been competing in the Motatapu event with 2300 other cyclists, including his wife Debbie. He fell off his bike and hurt his back during the ride. Paramedics used a defibrillator and oxygen to treat him for more than 90 minutes, but without success.

Schriek had been planning to retire from the police the following year.

He joined the police force in 1973 and was posted to Wellington before transferring to Christchurch. He resigned so he and Debbie could travel overseas and when he returned he became a real estate agent. In 1981 he returned to the police and was stationed in Gore until moving to Riversdale in 1993.

Schriek, who was of Dutch extraction, represented New Zealand in the kilometre time trial event at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, and also at the world championships.

In Christchurch, he finished 6th in the 1000m time trial in 1min 12.81s, after entering the event as one of the favourites. On a bitterly cold and windy evening, it seemed as if he might have overgeared because led for 800 metres and then faded badly.

Schriek won five senior national titles – in the sprint in 1977 and 1980, and in the 1000m time trial in 1974, 1975 and 1977. He was New Zealand’s No 1 rider in the time trial until the arrival of Anthony Cuff.

Schriek was the New Zealand Track Cyclist of the Year in 1974 and later managed provincial and national track cycling teams. He managed the New Zealand youth team to Sydney in 2003.