World Champion Buchanan dominates women's four cross

In the rainbow jersey of world champion, Caroline Buchanan claimed her fifth Australian four cross title at the Australian Mountain Bike Championships at Eagle MTB Park in Adelaide on Friday. Luke Madill took the men's event.

It was the first outing in the rainbow jersey of world champion for the 19-year-old Buchanan. Starting as the outright favourite, she coped well with the pressure putting in an almost flawless ride.

The women's race was only ever a race of two as Sarsha Huntington challenged Buchanan through the first two berms as they rubbed shoulders fighting for the lead, but the multiple-Australian champion eventually got the better of the battle. Emily Hockey claimed the bronze medal in front of her home crowd.

"I wasn't too sure what was going to happen in that first corner. It got pretty close in the first turn and I was ready for some carnage," Buchanan said. "I knew that Sarsha would be close and it's great that she pushes me all the time.

"Being my first mountain bike race since worlds I was feeling a little bit rough in areas but I wear the rainbow jersey with pride and I had an absolute ball with it out there today. I was just as nervous for this race as I was for the world titles.

"This [Australian] title feels just as good as the first one."

In addition to being the first outing for Buchanan's rainbow jersey, it was the debut for the new four cross course at Eagle MTB Park that the current four cross world champion rated as world class.

"With four cross it's important to get the lines equal so there's not one fast line from top to bottom and they've done that here," Buchanan said.

"It's on a really good slope. They've made it really technical and it will make for really even racing."

In the men's race Luke Madill took his third Australian title after going through the quarter final and semi-final comfortably, but got pushed to the line in the race for gold by Randal Huntington who made it a husband and wife combination in the silver medal position. The bronze medal went to Graeme Mudd.

"Having that strong first straight helped me a lot and got me out of trouble in the final," Madill said. "But it's still hard and you never know who's behind you because with this track there's lots of different lines so anything can happen.

"Once you get to the final experience really counts. But having the younger ones push us is good."

On Saturday, elite cross country racers will go for green and gold jersey.

Full results

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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 1
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Luke Madill
2Craig Yates
3Ben Matthews
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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 2
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Thomas Hubert
2Ryan Hunt
3James Shepherd
4Ngari Jenkins
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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 3
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Michael Fenwick
2Michael Young
3Andrew Brett
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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 4
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Randal Huntington
2Darren Kirby
3Ryan Chesney
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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 5
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Leigh Darrell
2Richard Levinson
3Luke McCkenzie
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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 6
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Michael Jobson
2Hayden Lester
3Philip Wood
4Diego Alvaro
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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 7
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Graeme Mudd
2Ashley Gray
3Sean Fitzpatrick
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Elite men's 1/16 finals, heat 8
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1David Habicht
3Blake Nielsen
2Jacob Reeves
4Kirby Watts
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Elite men's quarter finals, heat 1
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Luke Madill
3Ryan Hunt
2Thomas Hubert
4Craig Yates
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Elite men's quarter finals, heat 2
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Michael Fenwick
2Randal Huntington
3Darren Kirby
4Michael Young
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Elite men's quarter finals, heat 3
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Leigh Darrell
2Hayden Lester
3Michael Jobson
4Richard Levinson
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Elite men's quarter finals, heat 4
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1David Habicht
2Graeme Mudd
3Jacob Reeves
4Ashley Gray
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Elite men's semi-final, heat 1
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Luke Madill
2Randal Huntington
3Thomas Hubert
4Michael Fenwick
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Elite men's semi-final, heat 2
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1David Habicht
2Graeme Mudd
3Leigh Darrell
4Hayden Lester
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Elite men's final
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Luke Madill
2Randal Huntington
3Graeme Mudd
4David Habicht
5Leigh Darrell
6Thomas Hubert
7Michael Fenwick
8Hayden Lester
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Elite women semi-finals, heat 1
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Sarsha Huntington
2Charise Atkinson
3Kate Hoskin
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Elite women semi-finals heat 2
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Caroline Buchanan
2Emily Hockey
3Bec Kirss
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Elite women finals
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Caroline Buchanan
2Sarsha Huntington
3Emily Hockey
DNFCharise Atkinson
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Under 17 women finals
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Maya Sidhu
2Loren Vanetie
3Ellie Wale
4Danielle Beecroft
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Veteran men finals
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Daniel Sprague
2Jade McPherson
3Tom Gilfedder
4Raymond Ross
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Under 15 men finals
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Timothy Kmetyk
2Jackson Davis
3Simon Harrington
4George Hickman
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Under 17 men semi-finals, heat 1
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Max Hughes
2Luke Ellison
3Tom Rodgers
4Henry Blake
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Under 17 men semi-finals, heat 2
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Connor Fearon
2Cameron Ryan
3Conor Bullard
DNFAidan Vahtrik
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Under 17 men finals
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Connor Fearon
2Cameron Ryan
3Luke Ellison
4Max Hughes
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Sport men semi-finals, heat 1
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Arjan Sidhu
2Drew Stipanicev
3Stephen Knott
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Sport men semi-finals, heat 2
#Rider Name (Country) Team
1Will Hickman
2Andrew Nilbett
3Cale Anderson
4Kieran Thompson

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