Glenn Grabs Gold in Beijing
South Australia's Glenn O'Shea, 22, captured his third gold medal of the 2011/12 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Series, winning the men's omnium in Beijing.
Recently crowned Australian omnium champion, O'Shea, who claimed the pursuit and Madison (with Alexander Edmondson) gold medals in the Series' first round in Astana in November, took the omnium after winning two of the six events and finishing in the top three in four across the two-day event.
O'Shea, was a clear winner in the individual pursuit (4:25.860) and the points race, was second in the time trial (1:04.208) and third in the elimination race. In the scratch race and flying lap he finished sixth and seventh respectively to finish on top of the standings on 20 points. France's Bryan Coquard (23pts) claimed the silver medal, while Germany's Nikias Arndt (32pts) took the bronze.
In the men's team pursuit, the young Australian quartet of Edward Bissaker, Alexander Edmondson, Michael Freiberg and Mitchell Mulhern qualified second fastest (4:02.585) behind Russia (4:00.488),
In the final, the Russian team of Evgeny Kovalev, Ivan Kovalev, Alexey Markov and Alexander Serov, blistered around the Laoshan track to record at time of 3:57.699, over four seconds clear of Australia's 4:01.802. New Zealand (4:03.758) claimed the bronze over Great Britain (4:06.853).
Queensland's Mitchell Mulhern, 20, returned to the track on day two to collect his second silver medal, this time in the individual pursuit.
Mulhern (4:28.268) qualified second fastest behind New Zealand's Mark Latham (4:26.100) and early in the final, it appeared the youngster was on the verge of an upset of his more experienced opponent.
The Queenslander bolted out of the gates to lead by over a second after the first and second kilometre time checks, however a superb final kilometre from Latham saw him pip Mulhern in the final few laps to take the gold in a time of 4:25.964 ahead of Mulhern who crossed in 4:26.267. France's Kevin Labeque claimed the bronze.
In the men's keirin, Canberra's Andrew Taylor claimed the bronze medal behind France's Francois Pervis and Sergei Borisov (MTT). Taylor also finished 12th in the sprint.
West Australia's Isabella King finished just outside the medals in fourth place in the women's omnium.