Anna Meares and Matthew Glaetzer overcame heavy training schedules to win the sprint titles on Friday night at the Australian track cycling championships.
Meares won track's blue riband event for the seventh time at the nationals, giving her an amazing 31 Australian titles.
Glaetzer, a rising star on the track, won the senior sprint for the first time.
Meares and Glaetzer are training through the nationals in Adelaide this week ahead of the late-February world championships in Colombia.
The risks involved were emphasised when fellow leading sprinter Shane Perkins had to pull out of the sprint competition because of a lower back injury.
Perkins is having treatment and might race in Saturday's keirin, but only if there is no risk of further damage ahead of the worlds.
After qualifying second-fastest behind fellow SA rider Stephanie Morton, Meares went through the competition without a hitch.
The Olympic champion had straight-heats wins over Caitlin Ward (Vic) in the semi-final and then Morton in the final.
But Meares said it was much harder than it looked.
"I was so edgy for the semi, let alone the final," she said.
"To be honest, I was almost thinking about the headlines - 'Meares gets beaten finally'.
"My body was waving the white flag - 'stop, stop, stop, stop' - I'm tired and I had to win the battle in my head to make it actually go."
Perkins' withdrawal after he won his quarter-final earlier on Friday meant ACT rider Nathan Hart had a walkover in his semi-final and was fresh for the final.
Glaetzer beat Hart two heats to nil and admitted he did not want it to go to a third ride.
"I just had to forget about how rubbish I was feeling and lay down two solid rides," he said.
"It is great to finally get on the top step of the podium for the sprint."
Reigning champion Mitch Bullen and Caitlin Ward won the sprint bronze medals.
Also on Friday, Tasmania broke WA's domination of the women's team pursuit in a nail-biting final.
WA had won the past six titles in the event, but lost a rider early in the gold medal ride.
After being behind throughout the 4000m event, Tasmania won by just nine one-thousandths of a second.
Race judges double-checked the result before awarding the gold medal to Amy Cure, Georgia Baker, Lauren Perry and Macey Stewart.
SA caught NSW in the ride-off for bronze.
This is the first time Tasmania have won the women's team pursuit.
SA's Annette Edmondson lost a lap in the 25km points race, but still was too strong for her rivals and won the gold medal.
She scored 43 points to beat WA rider Melissa Hoskins by five, with the ACT's Rebecca Wiasak third on 27.
Victorian Braeden Dean won the men's under-19 keirin final.
In the last event of the night, NSW rider Scott Law won an action-packed senior 15km scratch race.
SA's Glenn O'Shea was second and WA's Stephen Hall won the bronze medal.
Those three riders and SA's Jack Bobridge lapped the field and were the only competitors on the track for the last few laps.
SA rider Callum Scotson, the younger brother of senior rider Miles, won the under-19 points race.
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