Young riders restoring cycling's pride at Australian Youth Olympics

CYCLING'S next generation of riders are helping to restore their sport's pride at the Australian Youth Olympics.

Callum Stotson

LANCE Armstrong might be the best known cyclist on the planet for his misdeeds off the bike but cycling's Generation Next were yesterday helping restore their sport's pride with thrilling gold medal winning and record-breaking feats at the Australian Youth Olympics.

Most riders in the Festival are too young to even remember even one of Armstrong's seven stripped Tour de France title wins with the disgraced American's web of deceit and lies woven a world away in a different era of cycling.

And while Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey looms large today, our young cyclists were yesterday happily getting on with the job of claiming the first track medals at Sydney's Dunc Gray Velodrome with Australian male and female pursuiters winning gold and silver in their events.

"I've never done an event this big before and to see that I can cope with the pressure and stuff is really encouraging," said Adelaide's Callum Scotson, who combined with Matt Ross, Josh Harrison and Sam Welsford to win the team-pursuit.

Australian trio Jai Angsuthasawit, Patrick Constable and Alex Radzikiewicz then stole the show with their Australian Youth Olympic record in the team sprint.

Their New Zealand rivals were the first to lower the 2009 record of 47.34 before the Australians claimed victory and a new mark in a sizzling 46.607.

It was a sensational start to the cycling program at the Youth Olympics - an event 10 of the 14 riders who represented Australia in London last year also honed their skills at in the past.

Paddlers Ben McLean from NSW and Queenslander Charlie Copeland also raced off with medals yesterday with silver and bronze performances in the K1 200m event at Penrith.

Copeland then combined with Jordan Wood for silver in the K2 and McLean picked up a bronze with Kieran Carson in the same event while Bendigo paddler Rebecca Mann picked up the first medal for women in the K1 500m.

"It' was a PB for me so I have to be pretty happy," said the 17-year-old.

Local swimmers also impressed with a strong of Australian Youth Olympic records broken in the first competition session at the Aquatic Centre.

Amelia Gould broke the six-year-old 200m freestyle record with her mark of 2:00.34 with Regan Leong also setting a new mark in the event with his time of 1:51.51 and Hayley Baker taking more than a second off the 100m backstroke with her win in 1:01.86.

In the shooting competition, Australia missed out on medals in the 10m air pistol final with China, Great Britain and Singapore dominating the event as locals Emily Esposito and Kayla Tompkins finished fifth and sixth.

While Australia failed to win a medal on the first day of the weightlifting competition being contested by China, Great Britain, Hungary, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chinese Taipei success is expected in the women's 58kg class today with the likes of Tasmanian Sophie Cowen and Alex Martin from Victoria tipped to excel.