Cam Meyer Wins World Championship Gold

Western Australian Institute of Sport cyclist Cameron Meyer has become the fifth cyclist in the Institute’s history to win a World Championship gold medal after winning gold in the points race at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Poland overnight.

The triple junior World Champion broke his run of fourth place finishes in major senior competitions, after finishing just outside the medals at the 2007 and 2008 World Championships as well as at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, by claiming 24 points to beat Denmark’s Daniel Kreutzfeldt by two points and Great Britain’s Chris Newton by three.

“The points score is one of the hardest races, harder every time I do it and I’m just amazed to come out and not be fourth and finally be a World Champion,” Meyer told Cycling Australia after the race.

The race saw the 2008 Olympian waiting until the last part of the 40km slog before making what turned out to be the gold medal move.

“I went in with a little bit of a different tactic of sitting back and waiting till the last bit,” said Meyer. “It was that hard a race during the first 80 laps the second half was a grovel and I knew there’d be a point where I had to make the decisive move and I did it and it worked for me.

“It’s just unbelievable.”

Meyer, who hails from the Perth suburb of Helena Valley, is considered one of the rising stars of Australian cycling with his ability to ride both on the track and the road. He’s also expected to race the teams pursuit and the madisonin Poland with brotherTravis Meyer a possibility of joining him in theformer.

WAIS Head Cycling Coach Darryl Benson couldn’t hide his delight after receiving a text message from Cameron this morning whilst on holiday.

“It’s wonderful to see this group of former junior world champions from WAIS now making their mark at senior level,” Benson said.

“What a huge boost to our cycling program to have Cam in the rainbow jersey (jersey given to each track world champion) for the next 12 months.”

In other WAIS related results from Poland, Scott Sunderland just missed out on a bronze medal in the team sprint with the Australian team setting a new national record but finishing fourth by just seven hundredths of a second.

Josie Tomic also just missed the podium in her World Championships debut, setting a new personal best whilst finishing fifth in the individual pursuit.