DAY 1 WRAP
Day 1 of Track Nationals provided great success with all 24 cyclists representing Victoria winning a medal.
In the under-19 women’s team pursuit, Alice Culling and Ashlee Jones won gold with a new championship record time of 4:40min, slicing 6 seconds off the old record.
Jensen Plowright and Graeme Frislie won gold in the under-19 men’s team pursuit. Plowright has now been involved with the winning team two years running. Frislie then picked up his second medal of the evening, winning bronze in the under-19 men’s team sprint.
In the senior men’s team pursuit, Kell O’Brien teamed up with 2009 Award of Excellence recipient, Leigh Howard, combining with juniors Godfrey Slattery and Isaac Buckell to ride sub four minutes in the heat. Riley Hart replaced Buckell in the final, with the quartet claiming gold over South Australia, a decade since Victoria has brought the title home.
In the senior men’s team sprint, Conor Rowley combined with Jacob Schmid and Braeden Dean to win bronze.
Maddie Jansen and Caitlin Ward also claimed bronze in the women’s teams sprint.
Jacob Schmid and Caitlin Ward both claimed silver in the men’s and women’s sprint respectively.
DAY 2 WRAP
Alice Culling was in fine form again on day 2, opening the Victorian Institute of Sport account with a silver medal in the under 19 women’s individual pursuit. Culling rode a scintillating 2:24, the third fastest time in Australian history.
In the men’s Individual Pursuit, it was a Victorian Institute of Sport past and present battle for bronze with nineteen-year-old 2017 World Championship bronze medallist Kelland O’Brien (4:19.660) surviving a late comeback by 2009 Award of Excellence recipient Leigh Howard (4:19.987).
“It was really good, I didn’t feel too good the first 50 or so laps, so it took a while for me to ride in. It was definitely a tough race out there but it just goes to show that the depth in Australia is just growing and the racing is getting harder and harder," said O’Brien.
Alana Field rode a sub 36 sec 500m TT to claim a silver medal, missing the gold medal by 0.1 of a second.
DAY 3 WRAP
Alana Field won gold in the under-19 women’s keirin with Sam Gallagher and Ollie Booth winning gold and silver in the under-19 men’s keirin respectively.
In the under 19 women’s Madison, VIS Cyclists Alice Culling and Ashlee Jones took home the silver medal to Jemma Eastwood and Sarah Gigante (VIC) who claimed gold.
In the men’s sprint, Jacob Schmid put in a gusty effort to win the silver medal, earning plenty of respect from the gold medallist, Matt Glaetzer (SA).
“Schmiddy he’s a class act. He went to three in the semi which is always tough so I was a bit tired after that but he came against me and I tried to exploit that in the final,” said Glaetzer.
DAY 4 WRAP
Kell O’Brien was yet again prominent at Track Nationals, winning his maiden individual gold medal in the elite men’s 40km points race.
The 19-year-old finished win with a 62 points, besting South Australia Joshua Harrison (45pts) and Stephen Hall (38pts).
“It was really good, I didn’t feel too good the first 50 or so laps, so it took a while for me to ride in. It was definitely a tough race out there but it just goes to show that the depth in Australia is just growing and the racing is getting harder and harder," said O’Brien.
Alana Field added the sprint crown to her keirin gold claimed on Saturday with a strong win in the women’s under 19 sprint competition.
In other VIS results on day 4, Jensen Plowright and Graeme Frislie won bronze in the under-19 100 lap Madison and under-19 1km time trial respectively.
