Queenslander Liam Walsh thrilled a parochial home crowd by claiming his first elite national championship at the 2024 AusCycling Track National Championships in Brisbane.
Walsh looked all but out of the race in the closing laps of the elite men's scratch race at the Anna Meares Velodrome on Sunday night.
Multiple moves went off the front of the main bunch, including a major one from points race and individual pursuit national champion Conor Leahy.
But patience from Walsh and trust in his Queensland teammates proved crucial, with the 22-year-old rocketing around West Australian Stephen Hall and Tasmanian Josh Duffy in the final straight to win by millimetres.
Disbelief and relief were written all over Walsh's face as he celebrated his first elite national championship in front of his home-town crowd.
"I've been there or thereabouts for the last four or five years and I know how many silver medals I've got, but let's just say almost too many to count - it's so good to finally crack it,'' Walsh said.
Victorian Alessia McCaig has given herself the chance to collect all four sprint national titles after successfully defending her elite women's 500m time-trial championship.
The 20-year-old played qualifying tactically in the earlier session of Sunday's racing, finishing fourth behind 40-year-old Kristine Perkins at the top of the standings in a time of 34.648.
In the final, McCaig shaved 1.1 seconds off her time to vault to the lead in 34.358, with Tomasin Clark, Selina Ho and Perkins still to come.
Perkins would come the closest, setting a time of 34.658 to finish 0.3 seconds off McCaig.
McCaig will race for a clean sweep in the team sprint on Tuesday with Victorian teammates Megan Reed and Ning Chien.
South Australia's elite women's team pursuit quartet of Chloe Moran, Sophie Edwards, Alli Anderson and Summer Nordmeyer notched the fourth national championship on the trot for their state.
The South Australians were guaranteed the national title as the only state or territory entered in the event and went up against Ireland's team of Lara Gillespie, Mia Griffin, Kelly Murphy and Alice Sharpe for the gold medal.
At the end of the 4000m pursuit, it was the Irish on top in a time of 4:17.670 to South Australia's 4:24.953.
In other results, Alex Hewes won the junior men's points race, and Liliya Tatarinoff took out the junior women's 500m time trial.
The South Australian team of Leani van der Berg, Ava Wilson, Madeleine Wasserbaech and Ava Schmidtke won the junior women's team pursuit.
There was more success for South Australia, with the team of Tayte Ryan, Kai Arbery and Niel van Niekerk winning the junior men's team sprint.
