Commonwealth Games: Triple treat as cyclists burn up boards

Australia’s fast and fearless track cyclists sparked wild celebrations inside the Anna Meares Velodrome.

Sam Welsford leads the celebrations of the victorious men’s pursuit team which included Kelland O’Brien, Alex Porter and Leigh Howard. Picture: Getty Images

Australia’s fast and fearless track cyclists sparked wild celebrations inside the Anna Meares Velodrome last night when three stirring gold medals were secured against the traditional sporting foes of England and New Zealand — and Stephanie Morton burned the boards to grab the first of what could be a four-gold haul on a lightning fast surface.

The men’s team pursuit blew the roof off the joint by clocking a world record to dominate England. The women’s team pursuit nearly lapped New Zealand on this breathtakingly slick circuit as Meares screamed her approval from the VIP seats. And then Morton powered home to win the women’s team sprint ahead of her heavily favoured tilt at the individual sprint title at the Commonwealth Games tonight.

Australian flyers Ashlee Ankudinoff, Annette Edmondson, Amy Cure and Alexandra Manly dominated the qualifying session for the women’s team pursuit, huddled up to work out how they could burn the boards even faster in the final, returned to the buzzing, sold-out, 4000-seat arena in Brisbane and blew the Kiwis off the track to claim the host nation’s first cycling gold medal of the Commonwealth Games. It was such a commanding victory by 9.3 seconds that the Australians almost overtook the NZ quartet while clocking a Commonwealth record of 4min15.214sec. “It was amazing. So good to win,” Ankudinoff said before the medal ceremony was performed by the Duchess of Cornwall.

The men’s team qualified fastest for their final by three seconds before Sam Welsford, Leigh Howard, Alex Porter and Kelland O’Brien, who replaced Jordan Kerby for the night session, blitzed the championship race. “We have a plan,” Welsford said before the gold medal went on the line. “We mean business. We’ll definitely go faster.” And they did. Australia produced a technically perfect and powerful race to win by more than three seconds and ensure the national anthem would ring across the hall once more. Meares was on her feet again when the clock was stopped in 3min49.804sec.

A truckload of triumphs could be upcoming if the opening night of pedal power was anything to go by. A third gold was nabbed in the women’s team sprint by Kaarle McCullough and Morton, who powered home against the Kiwi duo of for a Commonwealth record of 32.488sec before laps of honour were performed with Australian flags being worn like superhero’s capes.

“It’s a beautiful track,” Morton said. “I think we’re going to see a lot of fast times. We knew Anna when she was just one of the team, so it’s kind of funny to ride here and remember she’s actually really famous.”

The only pause in the revelry was the heartache of Pat Constable’s blunder that cost the men’s sprint team the chance to race for gold. Constable pulled a foot in a disastrous start to the qualifying round yesterday as his teammates, Nathan Hart and Matthew Glaetzer, seemed completely unaware he had fallen away. The Australians received the luxury of a re-race but the fatigue of repeating the full-throttle discipline contributed to the trio falling back to the bronze-medal race.

“I’m pretty disappointed that we’re going for third,” Constable said after his career-first mishap came at the worst possible time. “I know we’re a lot better than that.”

Australia’s cyclists were pummelled by Great Britain at the Rio Olympics but in the Commonwealth environment, where the British nations are divided into their constituent parts of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the Isle of Man, the team has topped the combined track and road medal tally since Auckland in 1990. There was a complete post-Rio overhaul of the program when four years of planning, and millions of dollars in funding, led to nothing better than one bronze medal and one silver medal in Brazil. A new performance director was named in Simon Jones, who was formerly a coach with Team Sky and British Cycling. Significant improvements were evident when Glaetzer and Morton won individual sprint gold and silver medals at last year’s world titles in the Netherlands. Jones has swept through so many changes in training routines that he’s earned the nickname of Hurricane. The men’s sprint team grabbed bronze after Glaetzer was replaced by Jacob Schmidt. Meares paid tribute to Hart for his role as the lead rider who peeled off after one lap. “This is the only night we will get to see Nathan Hart. It’s a very solitary role. You won’t ever see him in individual events. He covers 250 metres in about 17.1 or 17.2 seconds. It’s an incredible role.’’