A second gold medal to youngster Alex Edmondson capped off a “crazy” but successful 24 hours for Australia at the world track cycling championships.
The 20-year-old edged out Swiss rider Stefan Kueng by just 0.41 seconds in the men’s individual pursuit final in Cali, Colombia, on Thursday, a day after winning the team pursuit title.
It was Edmondson’s third career world title and Australia’s fourth consecutive in the discipline.
“It’s been the craziest last 24 hours,” he said.
“I struggled to get some sleep last night and came out just thinking I’ll give it my all and see what I happens.
“To come away with that, I just don’t know what to say. I’m speechless.
“I went out there with that one goal, one dream, to be world champion. And to come away with two rainbows is awesome.”
There was no pot of gold at the end for compatriot Anna Meares, who narrowly missed out on a record 11th world title with a silver in her pet event – the 500m time trial.
The 30-year-old clocked an impressive 33.548secs, only to be outpaced by Germany’s Miriam Welte in 33.451secs. Anastasia Voinova of Russia took the bronze.
“I felt like I had a really good ride,” said Meares.
“It was really quite painful, but I put all of what I had out on the track and I’m really happy with that.”
The South Australian still has two more chances to become the most successful female track cyclist in history this week in the sprint and keirin events.
She currently shares the lead on 10 rainbow jerseys with France’s Felicia Ballanger, who claimed five sprint and five time trial world titles between 1995 and 1999.
“There is lots of racing to be had and I’ve kicked it off really well tonight,” Meares said.
Meanwhile, Annette Edmondson, Amy Cure, Melissa Hoskins and debutante Bella King claimed Australia’s third podium of the day with a bronze in the women’s team pursuit.
The quartet gained a two-second lead after just the first kilometre beat out Poland in the ride-off for third place, with reigning Olympic champions Great Britain winning gold ahead of silver medallists Canada.
“The girls did a great job and everyone did their jobs perfectly,” Edmondson said.
“Of course we like to win gold, but we’ve just got to get better as a team because we couldn’t fault ourselves tactically.”
Australia’s Shane Perkins finished eighth in the men’s keirin, with compatriot Glenn O’Shea also in eighth in the men’s scratch race.
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