Australia has ended its three-year hiatus from the UCI Junior Track World Championships with a bang on day 1 in Tel Aviv, Israel, winning gold and silver in the men’s and women’s team sprint respectively.
The men's trio of Ryan Elliott, Maxwell Liebeknecht and Dylan Stanton grabbed the ascendancy early in the junior men’s sprint battle after qualifying first, then didn't look back on their way to becoming world champions.
Faced with the tough task of overcoming Germany in the gold medal final, the young Australians pulled out their best performance of the day to defeat the Germans by 0.566 seconds in a new junior national record time of 44.538 seconds.
Current junior national sprint champion Ryan Elliott said the moment felt unreal.
“We still can’t believe that we actually did it,” Ryan said.
“This has been our dream for the past year and a half.
“Everything went to plan, and we really owe it to Jon Andrews and the AusCycling staff who really helped us to stay calm and execute the race plan.”
The 18-year-old from Balmoral Cycling Club in Brisbane said nerves were high before the gold medal final, however, but so was their confidence.
“We were first in every round leading up to it, it really helped us prepare for the final," Ryan said.
“I think this moment we had tonight was in the back of everyone’s mind leading into the competition, being able to hear the national anthem while standing on the top step of the podium.
“The opportunity to achieve those dreams is so special.”
The 2022 junior men’s team sprint world championship breaks a nine-year drought for Australia in the event, with the last rainbow stripes win coming in 2013.
The Australian women’s team sprint trio of Emma Stevens, Tyler Puzicha and Sophie Marr claimed silver to make it a near-perfect night for the sprint squad in Israel.
Emma, Tyler and Sophie - who is predominately an endurance rider - also faced Germany in their gold medal final, falling short of the world championship by 1.045 seconds in a time of 50.933 seconds.
That time was their second best time of the day behind the round 1 performance of 50.856 seconds, which is a new junior national record.
Tyler, a Dubbo Cycle Club junior, said to be at junior worlds was completely unreal.
"I have to say I have never felt a heart beat in my throat until that point before the gold medal final.," Tyler said.
"The nerves weren’t so bad but the adrenaline kicked in and I was fired up for the race and ready to go.
"When we won silver it was amazing - the atmosphere was awesome and all the hard work that we had done individually came together.
"It’s also an honour to be wearing the green and gold."
