With the Commonwealth Games just over a month away, Sydney cyclist Ben Kersten has been very busy at the national titles in Adelaide, adding a third gold medal to the week's tally after teaming with Shaun Hopkins and Sean Dwight to win the men's teams sprint yesterday. Wins in the kilometre time trial on the opening day, the men's sprint on day three and yesterday's team sprint were backed up with a round of the teams pursuit to make it a tiring schedule for the fast man.
It's tough work, and Kersten knows it, saying, "It was harder than I would have liked - I'm getting a bit weaker and weaker every day now. Once we got into the gold-medal ride off, I really had to dig deep."
The NSW trio won in a time of 47.504 seconds against Queensland's William Draffen, Grant Irwin and Benjamin Simonelli, who rode a time of 47.751 seconds to claim second. Kersten's starting to hit some of his best form at the moment, but that doesn't make the effort any easier. "When we were going for gold I had no choice," he said. "I had to work for it and now I'm paying the price."
Kersten's form should improve even further following these national championships, and after showing blistering pace in the men's sprint rounds, a Commonwealth Games showdown between the 24-year-old and Scottish master blaster Chris Hoy will undoubtedly by a highlight of Melbourne's games.
For full results, report and photos of Day 5 of the Australian Track Championships, click here.
