Meares does it again with Australian keirin title

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There were a few nervous moments for Anna Meares before the 27-year-old collected her fourth Australian keirin title.

"I let Kaarle [McCulloch] and Holly [Williams] get in front of me and I thought this is going to be nice because I honestly thought the speed was going to roll quicker and quicker as the race progressed," a relieved Meares explained after the race.

"But it slowed down slightly and I got myself caught underneath Holly's wheel which gave the opportunity for Apryl [Eppinger] and Steph Morton to come around the outside as well.

"Going in with one and a half laps to go from fifth wheel that's not opportune at any time in the keirin."

Heading into the final bend before the bell lap, there was a slight collision between Eppinger's and Morton's wheel allowing Meares a small window of opportunity to escape her unfortunate position, and she took it.

"I used the banking as much as I could coming into the bell and I knew I just had to flat foot it and give it everything I could," Meares recounted. "I got there in the end but I was starting to really panic at one stage."

Meares, in a time of 11.713 finished ahead of Morton and Williams who edged out McCulloch for bronze.

Tomic leads Western Australia to women's 3000m pursuit All Comer's record

The pace was well and truly on in the women's 3000m pursuit final with the girls from Western Australia claiming gold ahead of Tasmania.

Neither team was lacking talent – Western Australia lead out by Josephine Tomic with Melissa Hoskins, and Isabella King while Tasmania boasted Amy Cure, Georgia Baker and Emma Lawson.

The West Australians had already set a new Australian record time of 3:25.425 in the afternoon session but in a fabulous display of pace caught up to their Tasmanian rivals with just over two laps to go, finishing strongly for a new All Comers record of 3:21.427. Today's time improved on that set by Tomic, Sarah Kent (WA) and Ashlee Ankudinoff (NSW) to win the World Championship in Denmark last year by three tenths of a second. Even more remarkable than the continuous improvement in the time was the fact that it was just .09 of a second off the world record, held by the United States.

Tomic, a member of Australia's world champion team pursuit praised her teammates, especially Isabella King who was filling in for an ill Sarah Kent.

"We've clearly got a very strong crop of young girls coming through in WA at the moment," Tomic said. "We lost Sarah [Kent] who was one of our stronger ones and replaced her with ‘Bella and we still did what is very much a world class time. Things are looking really good for the worlds.

"I had no idea what time we were on ... it was a bit of a surprise but I knew after the first lap that I was spending a lot so we must have been going pretty fast."

'Turbo Durbo' breaks through for maiden elite national individual title

Anyone watching the men's 40km points race final was kept in suspense right up until the final lap of the 160 lap distance when Western Australia's Luke Durbridge claimed his first individual elite title by six one hundredths of a second ahead of South Australian Glenn O'Shea.

"I'm stoked to get the win on the last event of the week," Durbridge said. "It was a fantastic feeling."

There was some confusion for the man who's become known as ‘turbo Durbo' with the 19-year-old under the impression he was three points ahead of O'Shea heading into the last lap when he was only up by two.

"I'm glad I avoided the embarrassment of not winning - thank God for that," he explained. "We'll leave it at that – a win's a win."

Durbridge finished with a total of 66 points ahead of O'Shea's 62 points while Queensland's Michael Hepburn took bronze with 52 points.

Hepburn was the first to lap the field before Durbridge and O'Shea countered twice with the Queenslander attacking later again in the piece.

"Points races are just generally going to be a brutal affair, they're so aggressive and so fast. Plus the calibre of riders that we've got in Australia at the moment means that it's always going to be a hard race."

"You always need to be prepared and it's always the guys who can just save that extra little bit in the first half that are going to win," explained Durbridge. "And I've learnt that today, normally I go a bit too hard too early, but I saved my legs early on and I came out on top which is just a fantastic feeling.

"I had a lot of help from my teammates Steve Hall and Michael Freiberg and I don't think I could have done it without them and I am so glad I could get the result for me and also for them as well."

In the men's under 19 keirin final, Victoria's Emerson Harwood was disqualified after he edged ahead of the derny forcing a re-start. New South Welshman Timothy McMillian took the opportunity to stamp his authority the second time around before Victorian Luke Parker took a slight advantage on the bell lap.

McMillan, who took gold in the under 19 sprint on Friday night, showed amazing speed staying high on the track to edge in front of the pack on the last bend to win from Western Australia's Luke Zaccaria and then Parker.

In the men's team sprint, the South Australian team of Matthew Glaetzer, Nathan Corrigan-Martella and James Glasspool set the fastest time in qualifying (45.113) and the backed up that performance to go even quicker in their gold medal race (44.838) against New South Wales (45.437). ACT took the silver medal (45.630) from Western Australia (47.078).

Glaetzer having already collected a bronze medal this week in the sprint was excited by his form.

"I just can't believe the times I am riding these championships and I have never ridden third wheel, apart from when I crashed at under 19 nationals, so it was a very big challenge for me this year," he explained.

"But the team sprint was what we were really after and we knew it would probably be between us and New South Wales as we had heard their form before these championships as they were all flying, so to knock them off, it is a massive effort."

Astute riding from New South Wales' Caleb Ewan wrapped up the men's under 19 25km points race final with four laps remaining. With 44 points, Ewan took gold ahead of Queensland's Nicholas Schulz who claimed the silver medal ahead of South Australia's Miles Scotson on a countback (33 points).

Queensland's Taylah Jennings won gold in the under 19's 7.5km scratch race in a time of 9:47.479 from Alexandra O'Dea and Allison Rice.

"I won the scratch at the Oceanias last year, so I really wanted to win this one," Jennings explained.

It's been a fruitful meet for Jennings who has now won two gold and two silver medals.

"I just like to win, but really I thought I might win one medal, maybe a bronze, but I never expected this," she said.

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