Conor Leahy breaks 11-year-old national record for third consecutive individual pursuit national title

WAIS graduate Conor Leahy rode himself in to the history books at the 2022 Australian Track National Championships at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane.

The 22-year-old covered the 16 laps of the track in qualifying in 4mins 10.113secs, eclipsing the previous mark set by Jack Bobridge in 2011 of 4mins 10.534secs.

In the final Leahy posted another world class time of 4mins 13.225secs to win his third consecutive individual pursuit national title, ahead of fellow WAIS graduate Oliver Bleddyn, who has since relocated to Adelaide.

“It’s unreal, I’ve been hunting that record for a while,” Leahy said of the Australian Record, which until 2018 was also the World Record.

“I wanted to go under the 4:10 barrier but, I mean, you’ve got to take what you can get sometimes.

“To race Oli (Bleddyn) in the final is pretty surreal – we’ve grown up together. He’s a few years younger than me and I’ve seen him grow into such an amazing athlete and I know he’s going to be pushing me for the next few years which is going to be annoying but it’s good to see for him.

“We grew up in the same neighbourhood so to be here representing different states is pretty mind-blowing.”