Perkins crowned Australian keirin champion

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Victoria's Shane Perkins made it two from two with his gold medal ride in the men's keirin on the final day of competition at the Cycling Australia Track National Championships in Sydney.

Perkins took out the final in a time of 10.544 from fellow Victorian Jason Niblett, New South Wales' Andrew Taylor and the ACT's Alex Bird.

2010 winner, Western Australia's Scott Sunderland was a surprise non-starter in the final having failed to make his way through from the repechage. Also missing was Daniel Ellis who withdrew from the championships earlier in the week having crashed in sprint qualifying and injuring his left shoulder. Even without his two biggest rivals, Perkins praised the quality of the field for the final.

"The level that we've got here this year is absolutely unbelievable," he said. "It's probably the best we've ever had.

"With Sean Eadie's group of NSW guys going 10.2 to beat some of the AIS guys obviously they had a bit of a different preparation coming in here because they've got the world championships; Matt Glaetzer 10.1 - but it's an awesome display from all the states. It was virtually a world championship final out there. All the guys are really fast as you saw in the heats – Alex Bird 10.5, Mitch Bullen 10.4 they're going from a long way out so it makes for some very tough racing once you get your head into it."

Given his opposition, 2010 world championship silver medallist Perkins was forced to put his foot down with three laps to go to escape the bunch and from there, never looked back.

"I guess I was lucky to have a teammate [Niblett] following me to give it a bit of distance and they nearly got me at the end there but with the NSW train going, took the initiative and lucky I had the legs to hold them off," he explained.

"Once I saw Pete Lewis come across and he wasn't committed to go he just wanted to get in the train I just thought it's time to go here and get out in front of them and make them work for it."

Perkins, having also taken gold in the men's sprint earlier in the week came into the national titles following a tough five week training block and has been quite astounded, although pleased with his performances.

"I'm pretty ecstatic and surprised in a way that I've got the form I have," he said. "Six weeks til the world titles I've still got a bit of work to do that's a great starting point to work from."

Nine year-old record falls in men's under 19 team sprint

The Victorian team of Luke Parker, Jaron Gardiner and Jacob Schmid kept their eyes on the prize in the under 19 team sprint. The trio set a time of 46.941 in qualifying against Western Australia (48.531) which was just two tenths of a second outside the All Comer's record set by the French at the junior world championships in Melbourne in 2002.

In the gold medal ride-off against the New South Wales team of Timothy McMillan, Mathew Ryan and Ben Young (48.118) the time kept tumbling with the Victorian's stopping the clock at 46.457 to topple the record they had come so close to in qualifying.

Jaron Gardiner said he was impressed with his team's effort which bettered that of a French outfit which included Francois Pervis, Mickael Murat and Gregory Bauge.

"How we rode how we improved out times it's amazing," he explained. "I was expecting it [the time] to go down a little bit but to see it come down to that I was stoked."

Under 19 Champion of Champions Jennings does it again

Queensland's Taylah Jennings added to her adding to her gold medals in the omnium and scratch with a win in the women's under 19 keirin final in a time of 12.096.

Jennings held off Victoria's Imogen Jelbart and South Australia's Rikki Belder and said her performances exceeded her expectations.
"I was really hoping for a medal but I didn't expect gold," she said unassumingly. "I thought maybe one or two medals but this is really exciting."

Jennings will go home with a medal tally of three gold, two silvers medals from the kilo and points race, plus a bronze in the pursuit – all in her first year in the under 19's division.

"I've only ever got silvers and bronze at national titles so this really exciting," she beamed. "This is awesome."

The 17 year-old has been dubbed ‘mini Meares' by her local Rockhampton press and Jennings who is coached by Anna Meares former coach Kenrick (Reggie) Tucker, hopes that she can one day have "the drive" to be like the 27-time national champion.

"She's an idol, she's really cool and such a good role model – especially because she's from Queensland," she said.

In the women's 10km scratch race South Australia's Annette Edmondson took out the gold medal in a time of 13:15:471 beating Ireland's Shannon McCurley and Tasmania's Amy Cure, who claimed the bronze.

In the Para sprint finals, the combination of Felicity Johnson and pilot Stephanie Morton was good for Victoria Dilley and Amanda O'Connor in the women's event. The South Australian pair of Johnson and Morton had posted a time an earlier time of 11.786 in qualifying – one tenth off the world record set at the 2004 Paralympics by Australians Lindy Hou and Janelle Lindsay.

In the men's event, Beijing Paralmpic gold medallist Kieran Modra and his pilot David Short representing South Australia took gold in a time of 11.922 to edge out the Western Australian pair of Thanh Tu and Chris Pratley.

Finally in the men's under 19 madison, New South Wales' Caleb Ewan made it two gold medals in two days when he paired up with Jackson Law (22 points) to win the title from South Australia's Alexander Edmondson and George Tansley (18 points) , while Western Australia's Mitchell Benson and Nicholas Graham-Dawson (15 points) won bronze.

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