Jack Bobridge made a brief and impressive return to track cycling on Thursday as SA continued their domination of the team pursuit at the Australian championships.
He combined with fellow London Games silver medallist Glenn O'Shea and rising stars Alex Edmondson and Luke Davison to catch NSW in the final on day two of the championships.
SA clocked three minutes 58.387 seconds to win the 4000m team pursuit Australian title for the fifth straight year.
A second-string SA team also beat WA for the bronze medal.
Bobridge has made an encouraging start to this year, finishing fifth earlier this month at the road nationals.
It follows a lean period in his professional road career, which included a switch from Orica-GreenEDGE to Dutch team Belkin a year ago.
"I've got him back on the track so he could find his mojo a little bit more, have a bit more fun and get back to winning bike races," said national track endurance coach Tim Decker.
"That's what he does; that's what he loves.
"The last couple of years, it's been tough.
"That was a test for me, to bring him in ... and it worked pretty well."
But after this week's nationals, Bobridge will return full-time to road racing and will not ride at the late-February world track titles in Colombia.
"His road team, obviously they pay the bills and we don't have the budget to pay the bills for him, which is a big shame," Decker said.
"If we could get a road team to support his track ambitions, that would be fantastic and we'd welcome him back with open arms, for sure.
"He's grown up a lot now, he's more mature and I think he could bring something back to this team."
Also on Thursday, SA's Stephanie Morton upset strong favourite Anna Meares to qualify fastest in the women's sprint.
Morton clocked 11.180 seconds for the flying 200m and Meares was second in 11.214.
Meares is training through the nationals in the lead-up to the worlds.
Morton and Meares breezed through the opening rounds of match racing ahead of Friday's semi-finals and finals.
Tasmanian Amy Cure won her first senior national title when she qualified fastest and beat reigning champion Annette Edmondson (SA) in the 3000m individual pursuit.
Melissa Hoskins (WA) beat Ashlee Ankudinoff in the bronze medal ride.
In men's sprint qualifying, Matthew Glaetzer set an Australian championship record of 9.901 seconds to qualify fastest.
He was the only rider to go under 10 seconds.
SA also won the under-19 men's team pursuit, while Korean Jeone Park won the under-19 men's sprint.
Victorian Courtney Field won the under-19 women's keirin.
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