Victoria too fast in pursuit

A POWERFUL Victorian quartet, including Geelong’s Leigh Howard, has comfortably defended its national teams pursuit title.

World record holders Howard and Kelland O’Brien combined with young gun Luke Plapp and starter Godfrey Slattery to dominate the final against SA on Saturday night.

After qualifying secondfastest on Thursday behind SA, Victoria rode 3min 56.588sec to easily defeat the South Australians’ 4:01.422 at Melbourne Arena.

With the fierce AustraliaGreat Britain rivalry in the men’s team pursuit always simmering, national coach Tim Decker noted Victoria’s time was quicker than the 3:59 from the British at the latest World Cup round in London.

“To win the national title and run 3:56 for a state team, I’m over the moon,” Howard said.

On Thursday, Plapp won the emerging athlete category at the Australian Sports Commission Awards, one of three honours for Australian cycling.

“Kelland and I have done some pretty good things in the last 12 months but you talk about Luke, he’s an amazing talent,” Howard said.

“And Godfrey — the job of a starter, it’s a lot more difficult than people give it credit.

“We have a pretty special state team.”

Alex Porter (SA) and Sam Welsford (WA), who combined with Howard and O’Brien to set the world record of 3:49.804 at the April Commonwealth Games, also rode at the nationals.

The next big goal for the team pursuiters will be the February world titles in Poland, where they will go headto-head again with the British.

Queensland caught SA in the women’s team pursuit final, while the NSW Institute of Sport won the bronze medal.

Sprint ace Kaarle McCulloch, who bypassed the London World Cup round and is in a heavy training block instead, led NSW to their first women’s team sprint championship in seven years.