Press Release: The Australian team has collected another two gold medals at the UCI Junior World Championships in Moscow to bring their tally to six gold and two silver with one day of competition remaining.
The Madison pair of Luke Durbridge and Alex Carver won their event in a nail biting final sprint while the astonishingly versatlie Megan Dunn demolished the opposition for an emphatic win in the omnium to collect her fifth junior World Championship gold medal.
Dunn came into this year’s event as the reigning Junior World Champion in the points race, scratch race and team pursuit and this week had already contested three events including a gold medal ride in the women’s team pursuit. She also raced last week’s road race and placed fifth in the team sprint on the same day she won the team pursuit.
The Dubbo teenager who turns 18 later this month proved tireless in the omnium which involves five separate events in one session of racing with the aim of securing the lowest cumulative points tally. She kicked off with victory in the flying 200m time trial, then won the 5km scratch race, placed second in the 1500m individual pursuit and won four of the five sprints in the 10km points race to put herself in the box seat going into the deciding 500m time trial.
"I had a good day with good preparation leading into it and I pulled it off on the track," said Dunn who notched up a personal best time in the 500m to clinch yet another rainbow jersey. "I was rapt in the whole day and it went really smoothly.
"We have such a good team and good management over here and it just makes your job so much easier, all you have to do is ride," said a delighted Dunn who admits she was a little distracted before the 500m ride because she was cheering for her Aussie team mates in the Madison.
"You get carried away in the momnent and then you suddenly realise you should be concentrating on your race," said Dunn. "But I always have to cheer on other team members and I focused fine for the 500."
Dunn won with seven points. Italian Giulia Donato was well behind on 22 points to claim the silver medal in a countback with Czech rider Gabriela Slamova, also on 22 points, was placed third.
Dunn hasn’t had a chance to celebrate either of her wins this week as she still has one event to race. She will line up on the final day of competition to defend her points race crown from 2008.
"This Championships has been a test of my strength with five events in total and the points race is my priority event."
While Dunn was cheering from the pits the Madison boys were out to keep the title in Australian hands.
It was West Australian Durbridge’s second gold medal of the week adding to the one he claimed last week in the road time trial and it came a day after he and his pursuit team mates missed out on gold after a crash marred their final ride against Russia. New South Wales rider Carver also went into the event with added motivation after placing fourth in the scratch race and crashing out of medal contention in the points race earlier in the week.
"We’ve been working for this for a while and after the silver medal ride in the team pursuit we were that extra bit motivated," said Durbridge. "I went into the Madison feeling pretty relaxed before the start but when I got out there I got in race mode."
But the pair’s win didn’t come without drama. Carver sprinted into third place on the first of five sprints in the 33km (100 lap) race to put the Australians on the board but one of the Italian riders got in the way of their changeover for the second sprint and they missed the chance of any points.
"Usually on 250m track there are six sprints but there was only five on this track and the missed change meant Alex had to chase to get back in and that hurt us a fair bit," explained Durbridge who did the endurance work during the race setting Carver up to contest the sprints. "But when we got back on knew we had to get points so we put it behind us and got on with the job."
In the third sprint the pair placed second and then won the fourth sprint to put them in a two way tie for the lead with Belgian pair Jochen Deweer and Gijs Van Hoecke. That set up a final sprint showdown.
"It’s an Aussie tradition to leave it to the last sprint," laughed Carver. "We led it out for three or four laps and I knew as soon as we beat the Belgians across the line I knew that we had the win.
"I always wanted to get a rainbow jersey and I was just so over the moon and haven’t celebrated that hard ever."
The pair finished on twelve points, one ahead of Belgium with Denmark third on eight points.
"I reckon theirs was the ride of the Championships for me," said Dunn of the Madison result. "They only won by one point and they used their disappointment as a positive and came away with the gold by putting in a really classy performance."
In the women’s sprint competition South Australian Annette Edmondson, the silver medallist last year, placed fourth after going down in straight heats in both her semi-final match up and in the bronze medal round.
In the men’s sprint Australia’s trio of Maddison Hammnond, James Glasspool and Matthew Glaezter were all knocked out in the first round.
source: Cycling Australia
