Bike issues haunt Sunderland at nationals
WA cyclist Scott Sunderland's disappointing start to the 2014 Track National Championships in Adelaide continued yesterday with a bronze in his favourite event, the men's kilometre time trial.
Carrying a sore wrist after a training crash on Tuesday, the 25-year-old looked on track for victory before a mechanical issue with his bike caused him to lose focus in the final laps.
He eventually faded to finish with a time of 1min. 3.568sec. - more than two seconds behind gold medallist Matthew Glaetzer from South Australia (1:1.175).
New South Wales' Scott Law won silver with a time of 1:3.176.
WAIS cycling coach Darryl Benson said the result was disappointing given Sunderland's form early in the race.
"We actually had to do a wheel change right before the start of it," Benson said.
"We put another wheel in and he was having problems with that.
"Basically on the last two laps he didn't have the faith in the bike to finish it off, but he got the bronze medal.
"It's a shame because he was on a 1.01 pace, then in the back straights into the third lap he's looked backwards at the bike and then again on the home straight.
"He dropped a bit of speed and put him off schedule."
The bronze medal comes just one week after Sunderland became the first Australian to break the one-minute mark in the kilometre time trial in a gold medal-winning ride at the track World Cup.
Glaetzer's 1:1.175 ride set a new event record, eclipsing Shane Perkins' 1:1.736 set in 2009.
South Australia had the best of the results in the first session of this year's meet, with Glaetzer joining teammates Steph Morton and Rikki Belder (women's team sprint) on the top of the podium.
Morton and Belder's gold medal gave South Australia their third women's team sprint title in three years. The duo qualified fastest early in the session and their time of 34.172sec. in the final was enough beat Victorian duo Caitlin Ward and Deanna Bax.
WA's Tian Beckett and Elissa Wundersitz qualified for the bronze medal race but were overpowered by Queensland's Taylah Jennings and Tennille Falappi.
Victorian Braden Dean was the other gold medallist from the first session with a victory over South Australian Alexander Porter in the under-19 men's kilo- metre time trial.
