Australia claim pursuit gold in Brisbane

Australia's men and women's pursuit squads have each claimed gold on the opening day of the UCI Track World Cup in Brisbane.

(L-R) Sam Welsford, Leigh Howard, Kelland O'Brien and Alexander Porter of Australia Source: Getty Images

Georgia Baker, Ashlee Ankudinoff, Annette Edmondson, Alexandra Manly and newcomer Maeve Plouffe led Australia to victory over New Zealand in what was an impressive performance from the reigning world champions.

"We don't get the opportunity to race in front of a home crowd, especially at a World Cup, so we wanted to go out firing and win gold," Edmondson said.

Source: Cycling News

"I think we are heading in the right direction, and we have been working pretty hard behind the scenes, we wanted to do some fast times here in Brisbane, we have ticked some boxes, and will use it as inspiration to keep the momentum for the Olympics."

Australia's second gold medal was secured courtesy of Sam Welsford, Leigh Howard, Kelland O'Brien, Alexander Porter and Luke Plapp, the men's team building on their silver medal showing last week across the Tasman.

Source: Cycling News

"It just shows that we have some good talent heading into the Olympics next year," Welsford said.

Stephanie Morton and Caitlin Ward meanwhile managed a bronze medal in the women's team sprint, trailing the Russian Federation pairing of Ekaterina Rogovaya and Anastasiia Voinova, as well as winners Marlena Karwacka and Urszula Los of Poland.