Western Australian’s Achieve Great Success as Track Cycling comes to a Close
Last night’s Men’s 40km Points Race final marked the end of a big four days on the cycling track for our Western Australian athletes Sam Welsford and Cameron Meyer.
With Welsford competing across three of the days and Meyer on two it was a physically demanding yet highly successful few days for the duo.
Starting out on Thursday the 5th of April Sam was the first of the two to take to the track competing alongside Alex Porter, Leigh Howard and Jordan Kerby in the Men’s 4000m Team Pursuit qualifying round.
After a fantastic run the team crossed the line in 3:52.041, consequently earning themselves a new Games record.
The Games record was previously held by Australia who had completed the pursuit in 3:54.851 at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Moving into the finals the Australians decided to make one change to their team swapping out Jordan Kerby for Kelland O’Brien.
Racing in the gold final Australia were going to have to out race the highly competitive English team in order to finish on top.
Leaving no stone unturned the Australians charged home to win it all.
Not only had they won the Commonwealth Games gold medal they had also smashed both the Games record they had set earlier in the day and the World record set by Great Britain at the Rio Olympics.
Crossing the line in 3:49.804 the home team finished the race three seconds faster than they had in qualifying.
It was a night to remember and a good start to the Games for the Australian track cycling team.
Moving in to day two Sam Welsford was set to back-up by racing in the Men’s 4000, Individual Pursuit.
After finishing fifth in the qualifying round with a time of 4:13.595, Welsford narrowly missed out on a spot in the bronze final finishing his Individual pursuit campaign short.
With day three on the track came the first appearance from Cameron Meyer.
The highly fancied track and road cyclist took to the velodrome to compete in the Men’s 15km Scratch Race alongside Sam Welsford.
The pairing were both scheduled to compete in heat one of the qualifying round which proved useful in their pursuits of success.
Driving each other home Welsford crossed the line in third, closely followed by Meyer in fourth.
A strong finish from the two Western Australians earned them both a spot in the finals.
The Men’s 15km Scratch Race final was a true Games highlight for the Australian track cycling team.
Pushed along with the help of his fellow Australian riders, Sam saw his opportunity on the final bend of the final lap and took it.
Coming from behind Welsford used all that he had left in the tank to kick it up a gear, mowing down and overtaking the race leader to cross the line and win his second gold medal of the Games as a Commonwealth Games debutant.
With Sam Welsford finished for the Games Cameron Meyer was the sole Western Australian in the spotlight on day four.
Competing in the Men’s 40km Points Race, he showed his experience at the elite level.
Taking part in heat two of the qualifying rounds Meyer earned himself 25 points to finish in fourth place, a mere three points behind the heat winner.
Qualifying for the final Meyer was set to race in his second 40km points race for the day.
A strong effort in the final saw him finish in fourth place with 50 points, Scotland’s Mark Stewart taking the gold with a total of 81 points.
Four big days in the velodrome saw great success for our Western Australian cyclists, Sam Welsford and Cameron Meyer, including two victories resulting in two gold medals for 22-year-old Sam Welsford.
Whilst the Commonwealth Games are now over for Sam, Cameron Meyer turns his attention to the road cycling where he is scheduled to compete for Australia on the 10th (Wednesday) and 14th (Saturday) of April.
- Annika Lee-Jones