O'Shea, Meyer claim Australian Madison title

Victoria's Glenn O'Shea (Bendigo & District CC) and West Australia's Cameron Meyer claimed the 2010 2XU Australian Madison Championship in Melbourne on Friday night. The event saw a sold-out crowd pack Darebin International Sports Centre (DISC).

The pair held off strong challenges from one of the strongest Australian madison fields ever assembled including Olympic Madison champion Graeme Brown and world under 23 time trial champion Jack Bobridge, Junior World Champions Alex Carver and Luke Durbridge, defending champions Sean Finning and James Langedyk, Travis Meyer and Michael Freiberg and New Zealand’s Tom Scully and Shane Archbold.

The stellar cast put on a superb show for the crowd with the early pace set by New Zealand's Achbold/Scully. Despite an early fall by Archbold, the duo lead on 13 points at the midway point, a slight lead over the West Australian pair of Travis Meyer and Michael Freiberg on 12 points, with world junior champions Alex Carver and Luke Durbridge in third.

The championship's decisive moment came from O'Shea and Meyer shortly after the fifth sprint when, knowing they were well behind on points, Meyer launched a daring solo attack and quickly gained a lap on the field. However with three sprints remaining, defending champions Finning (Castlemaine CC) and Langedyk (Geelong CC) led an immediate counter attack, and a subsequent move by the second New Zealand pairing of Aaron Gate and Myron Simpson, quickly put new points leaders Carver and Durbridge quickly out of contention.

The race quickly became a battle of three in the final stages, with each remaining sprint a nail biting affair between the pairs. Going into the 10th and final sprint, O’Shea and Meyer held a four point advantage over Finning and Langedyk and despite Finning taking the maximum five points in final sprint to move to 11 points, Meyer held on for second place, with the three points enough to take the championships on 13 points. Simpson and gate finished third on 6 points.

In the other events, the Clipsal 2010 Victorian Keirin Championships featured some of Australia's best sprinters, with Queensland's world champion Anna Meares taking out the women’s final head of New South Wales' Kaarle McCulloch. Crowd favourite Josiah Ng of Malaysia took the men’s event.

Shannon McCurley (La Trobe City CC) won the Under 19 women’s crown, whilst Maddison Hammond (Northcote CC) capped a stellar 2009 with victory in the Under 19 men’s event.