Kerby, Meyer take gold, Morton silver, O'Brien bronze
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Jordan Kerby is congratulated by fellow world champion Cameron Meyer
Australian Cameron Meyer with the gold in the points race over Kenny De Ketele (Belgium) and Wojciech Pszczolarski (Poland)
Kristina Vogel (Germany) against Stephanie Morton (Australia) in the sprint final
Amy Cure (Australia) heads the field in the women's omnium
The Australians cemented their domination of the 2017 UCI Track World Championships in Hong Kong on Friday, more than doubling their medal tally from the first two days of racing. The team added five medals in one day: two gold, one silver and two bronze.
The team now lead the medal count with eight (three gold, three silver, two bronze). Germany, New Zealand, Great Britain and Italy are all tied with three medals (each with one gold, one silver, one bronze).
Cameron Meyer earned the eighth world title of his career, lapping the field twice en route to taking out the Points Race world title, while Jordan Kerby rode the third-fastest individual pursuit in history en route to winning the gold medal.
Kelland O'Brien took third in the individual pursuit behind his teammate Kerby and second-placed Italian Filippo Ganna, and in the women's sprint Stephanie Morton took second to German Kristina Vogel. Finally, Amy Cure, who led the women's Omnium before the final Points Race, ended the event with the bronze medal.
Kerby, who moved from the road to the track just last year, was stunned with his result and the 4:12.172 he set in qualifying.
"If I'm going to do something I'm going to do it properly," Kerby said. "4:12 – I never thought I'd do that, we came to Hong Kong a week before and I was doing similar efforts to home and they were all two and three seconds quicker.
"I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd wear a senior rainbow jersey – I'll have a good kit to roll to the brew shop in now," Kerby quipped.
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Kerby came back to track racing after his Drapac team merged with the WorldTour Cannondale squad and he was left out in the cold.
"I was sitting in an apartment in Girona watching the Rio Games, and at the same time I was made aware I was going to lose my contract with Drapac and I was watching and thinking, 'it would be great to go back and just have a go.'
"See in this sport you can go through some terrible lows and something like this happens it just erases everything, it's amazing, I can't explain how good it feels."
For Meyer, the eighth rainbow jersey of his career came with an emphatic ride in the Points Race, where he lapped the field first with Belgian Kenny De Ketele and Dane Niklas Larsen, and then took another lap on his own. He ended 36 points up on De Ketele and Poland's Wojciech Pszczolarski to take his second gold of the competition after the team pursuit on Thursday.
"It's been a pretty full-on 48 hours and I loved it," Meyer said. "I'm back to what I love doing and to win two rainbow jerseys in my first proper season back on the track I'm over the moon."
"They're never easy, 2012 was the last one and I only won that by one point. I knew I'd go out there as probably one of the favourites and it was about keeping calm, I've been in this situation before and it was just trying to be confident that I knew in the last half of the race I could be the strongest bike rider. And tonight I was, so I'm really happy."
Morton's silver in the individual sprint was an especially impressive result for a rider who fractured her shoulder in the keirin at the Australian championships just five weeks ago.
"It is a bit surreal, it was a huge stepping stone for me to get to a final, and I am really proud," Morton said. "I am pretty stoked to be here to be honest. But they said I wouldn't make it any worse so it took lots of strapping, and a case of 'grit your teeth' and see how much pain you could take.
"So if you told me five weeks ago when I was lying on the floor at the Brisbane velodrome that I would have made two world championship finals at Worlds, I would have said you were crazy."
In the women's Omnium, Amy Cure won the Elimination Race and was second in the Scratch Race to lead going into the final points race. But Cure struggled to earn points in the sprints – only racking up three. Cure was tied on points with Kirsten Wild behind overall winner Katie Archibald, but was relegated to the bronze after an objection from the Dutch team over the final sprint.
Earlier this week, Morton and Kaarle McCulloch were second in the team sprint, the women's team pursuit squad took silver and the men's team pursuiters claimed the world championship title.
