TASMANIAN cyclists Lauren Perry and Macey Stewart claimed gold medals on day 2 of the third and final UCI Track World Cup in Cali, Colombia.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Australian women’s team – boasting an average age of 18 – of Stewart and Perry, Alex Manly (SA), and Elissa Wundersitz (WA), stormed to gold in the 4km team pursuit.
Later in the session, the New South Wales trio of Scott Law, Jackson Law and Tirian McManus teamed with Joshua Harrison (SA) to make it a team pursuit double when they claimed gold in the men’s.
The result was just the third time in history that Australia has won the men’s and women’s team pursuit in the same round at at World Cup, the other times being Beijing and Melbourne both in 2010.
In other events, Shane Perkins (Victoria) a former keirin world champion made it three medals for Australia on day two after claiming silver in the keirin, while Caitlin Ward (Vic) finished 12th in the sprint.
The women’s quartet led from start to finish in their first round heat to post the fastest time in the event of four minutes, 28.27 seconds.
The time, an improvement of over nine seconds on their third-fastest qualifying time recorded on Friday, booked a spot in the gold medal ride against China (4:33.591secs).
‘‘Heading into the qualifying round our aim was to make the top eight, and we would have been happy! So when we qualified third it was an achievement in itself,’’ said Stewart.
‘‘To make the gold final in a time that would have qualified us first at last year’s World Championships was unbelievable.’’
In the final, a fast start saw Australia take the early lead before China came back in the middle stages of the 16 lap, 4000m event.
Having kept plenty in reserve, Australia was able to power home in the final kilometre to take the win in 4:31.527secs, two-and-a-half seconds ahead of China in 4:34.105secs.
‘‘I am overwhelmed and shocked,’’ added Stewart.
‘‘We as a team have taken so much confidence from this result, and are so proud of each other. We worked as a true team out there and it paid off.’’