Van der Ploeg wins Aussie short track title

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Paul van der Ploeg and Rebecca Henderson won the short track crowns at the 2012 Australian MTB Championships at Adelaide's Eagle MTB Park.

Van der Ploeg finished second to Dan McConnell in yesterday's elite men's cross country race, but the big Victorian reversed the result today in the short track.

A classic battle saw van der Ploeg pull away from McConnell on the last lap to win in a time of 23:40, 9 seconds ahead of his rival. Sid Taberlay was third, recording a time of 24:03.

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"It was tough racing out there, really fast and we all kept each other honest," said van der Ploeg.

"It was on from the gun. I had an attack, then Dan had an attack and then Luke Fetch had one too. There were a lot of people switching off the front and Chris Jongewaard, who was the reigning national champ, had a flat tyre, so luck plays a part."

In the elite women's category, Henderson fought off a spirited Katherine O'Shea and Rowena Fry charge to collect her second national title of the weekend, after claiming the under 23 cross country race yesterday.

Henderson crossed in a time of 18:48, four seconds ahead of Fry.

"I was super happy to get today's win. I haven't won a short course against these girls before, so I couldn't think of a better time to do it than at the national championships," said Henderson.

"It was a bit of a three-way battle for the entire race. Kat and I were out in front for a while then Rowena clawed back on to us and I made a bit of a sneaky move on the outside of her. I had no idea I had a gap on them and I looked around at the start-finish and realised I had a gap and I just went for it."

Billy Sewell took out the under 19 men's category while Peter Kreilis was crowned the sport men's champ.

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