South Australian Maeve Plouffe has a sniff of the individual pursuit world record after posting another impressive time at the Australian track cycling championships.
The 22-year-old dominated the 3000m event at Brisbane's Anna Meares Velodrome, qualifying in three minutes 21.760 seconds.
The Tokyo Olympian then caught fellow SA rider Amber Pate in the final with two laps left and won in 3:22.557.
Her times obliterated the previous national championships record of 3:29.424, set by Amy Cure in 2017, as Plouffe reclaimed the Australian title she previously won in 2019.
Last month, Plouffe went under 3:20 for the first time when she won the state titles in an Australian record 3:19.994.
She was track side at the 2020 world titles when American star Chloe Dygert broke her own world record for the third time, reducing it to 3:16.937.
"I can just kind of smell that world record but there is a big build before Commonwealth Games and that's why I didn't do every single event at track nationals as well," Plouffe said.
"It's something I thought was unattainable for many years ... I watched it (Dygert's latest world mark) and thought no one was ever going to break that again.
"But then we started doing the calculations and thought hey, we're not actually that far off of it if you take into account things like the conditions and equipment that I was on, which all could be improved a lot.
"So it is definitely still there in the back of my mind, but I think training for the other events that I want to train for will get me closer to that."
Also at the nationals, top sprinter Matthew Glaetzer won his third gold medal this week when South Australia took out the team sprint.
After taking out the sprint and keirin, the three-time Olympian combined with Leigh Hoffman and James Brister to deny NSW a second straight team sprint championship.
It is Glaetzer's 19th senior Australian title.
