Australia has achieved its best ever result at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships, held this year in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands from 23–27 March. The Australian team collected eight gold, two silver and one bronze, and won six out of ten Olympic events on the program. All but two of the medals were won by current or former Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) cyclists.

A total of 16 current and former AIS athletes competed at the 2011 track cycling championships as part of the Australian Cyclones team. The AIS gold medal winners were current scholarship holders Anna Meares, Kaarle McCulloch, Rohan Dennis, Luke Durbridge, Jack Bobridge, Cameron Myer and Michael Hepburn; and ex-AIS athletes Shane Perkins and Leigh Howard.

Australia topped the championship medal tally ahead of France (two gold, one silver and four bronze), Belarus (two gold and one silver) and the United Kingdom (one gold, three silver and five bronze).
Some of the highlights for Australia were the Cyclones defending the men’s team pursuit world title on the opening day of competition and Anna Meares winning all three world sprint events, including the keiren, on the final day.

‘My career goal, since I was 16 years of age in the Queensland Academy of Sport was to win a world title in every [sprint] discipline,’ Meares said. ‘I’ve done that. I’ve finished that dream today and I’m so excited about what the prospects can be in the next year or two.’

Meares said the Cyclones’ strong performance has provided a boost of confidence in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

‘It is a boost, for sure, morale-wise,’ said Meares. ‘Morale carries confidence, self-esteem and happiness, and all those kinds of things snowball into the team around us as well.’

The AIS works in partnership with Cycling Australia to deliver the high-performance AIS Track Cycling program. The program is based in Adelaide and supports the training and development of the nation’s best sprint cyclists by providing access to leading coaching and sports science expertise, and world-class training facilities, such as the Adelaide Super-Drome.
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2011 UCI Track Cycling World Championships: Australian medallists

Gold

• Men’s teams pursuit: Jack Bobridge (AIS), Rohan Dennis (AIS), Luke Durbridge (AIS) and Michael Hepburn (AIS)
• Men’s individual pursuit: Jack Bobridge (AIS)
• Women’s team sprint: Anna Meares (AIS) and Kaarle McCulloch (AIS)
• Women’s sprint: Anna Meares (AIS)
• Women’s keirin: Anna Meares (AIS)
• Men’s madison: Cameron Meyer (AIS) and Leigh Howard (ex-AIS)
• Men’s keirin: Shane Perkins (ex-AIS)
• Men’s omnium: Michael Freiberg (WA Institute of Sport)

Silver

• Women’s scratch race: Katherine Bates (ex-NSW Institute of Sport)
• Men’s points race: Cameron Meyer (AIS)

Bronze

• Men’s individual pursuit: Michael Hepburn (AIS)