More glory for Australia on day 4

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Australia’s domination on the track at the Commonwealth Games continued on day 4, with gold in the men’s team sprint and a Cameron Meyer victory in the men’s scratch race. Indeed, it was a good day all around for the antipodes with New Zealand’s Alison Shanks taking gold in the 3,000m individual pursuit.

In the team sprint, Australia faced off against New Zealand in the final and turned in a dominant performance. The Australian trio of Daniel Ellis, Jason Niblett and Scott Sunderland finished in a time of 43.722 seconds to beat the New Zealand team of Eddie Dawkins, Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster. Meanwhile Malaysia took a fine bronze.

The team sprint final was marred by a crash involving New Zealand’s Sam Webster just after he pulled off, but his team’s time of 44.233 was still enough for a new national record. The Australians, however, were simply too strong and the result was never in doubt.

It was Scott Sunderland’s third medal of the games after his 1km gold and sprint silver, but his achievements were soon to be bettered by his compatriot Cameron Meyer in the scratch race.

Meyer had already taken gold in the team pursuit and the points race, and his win the scratch event sealed an Australian one-two on the night. It also marked Australia’s 12th gold medal out of 14 events and offered a further demonstration of their dominance at these games. Michael Freiburg took silver for Australia, while Canada’s Zach Bell finished third.

In the women’s pursuit, Alison Shanks (New Zealand) gave an exhibition over the second half of the final to take gold. She covered the 3,000m in 3:30.875 to beat Northern Ireland’s Wendy Houvenaghel into second place. Meanwhile, Tara Whitten (Canada) was a convincing winner of the bronze medal match, beating New Zealand’s Jaime Nielsen into fourth place.

Australia’s Josephine Tomic had been tipped to add to her country’s medal haul in the pursuit, but she could only manage 5th in qualifying and failed to earn a chance to ride for a medal.

Women's 3,000m Individual Pursuit

Men's Team Sprint

Men's 20km Scratch Race