Photo Finish

Olympians Anna Meares and Shane Perkins headline Adelaide warm up cycling series.

This was a rare winter treat for track cycling fans in Adelaide with our own Olympians Anna Meares and Shane Perkins headlining a host of international track stars at the International Track Series (ITS) at the Adelaide Super-Drome tonight.

The Adelaide Super-Drome is the headquarters for the highly successful Australian Institute of Sport's Men's and Women's Track Cycling Program.

Over the last 5 days, this was the inaugural ITS Adelaide meet, and it has attracted almost 100 entrants from eight countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, Malaysia, China and Belgium.

I am a long-time track cycling fan and today Paladian and I attended this exciting event at the Super-Drome as guests of fellow blipper, Graham McArthur. Graham is the manager of the Super-Drome and gave us the grand tour before the final night's racing got under way.

We enjoyed seeing Anna Meares race, and in my blip you see Shane Perkins edging out Matthew Glaetzer on the line in the second heat of the Sprint Final giving them one race each in the best of 3, with a decider to follow. Perkins was made to sweat as he pulled out all stops to blitz Glaetzer in the final. (Perkins was the 2012 Olympics bronze medallist in the Sprint.)

Victory!

Our thanks to Graham for a fantastic tour of the facility and a great experience tonight. My dream would be as a sports photographer with Olympic Games accreditation!

My last cycling blip was on January 24th at our local Tour Down Under. This tour is organised by Mike Turtur who is a former track cyclist and Olympic gold medallist in the 4000m Team Pursuit at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The team members in LA were Dean Woods, Kevin Nichols and Michael Grenda, coached by Adelaide's Charlie Walsh. Gary West was the 5th member of this team, and he is the current Track Sprint Coach for Cycling Australia/AIS.
I had the privilege of being at the track to witness that Gold Medal winning race, 29 years ago.