Aaron Gate enjoyed a blast from the past with a dominant victory in the omnium at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Brisbane.
His success completed a New Zealand sweep of the last three World Cups in the four-discipline Olympic event, after current world champion Campbell Stewart triumphed in Hong Kong and Cambridge.
Gate, the 2013 omnium world champion, confirmed his sparkling return to the New Zealand track squad.
Last week, he played a pivotal part in the team pursuit success and partnered Stewart to win the madison at Cambridge.
With Stewart focussing on team pursuit in Brisbane, Cycling New Zealand had an excellent insurance policy in Gate, after the 29-year-old dominated a strong field at the Anna Meares Velodrome.
Gate made a hot start, finishing second behind Japan’s Eiya Hashimoto in the 10km scratch race, after the leading three riders broke clear.
The 10km tempo race, where one point is awarded for each lap leader, followed a similar pattern, with Gate among four riders to put a lap on the field to gain 20 bonus points.
The Kiwi was caught out when blocked on the inside of the track to exit early in the elimination race, which left him six points behind Hashimoto and eight clear of Germany’s Roger Kluge, entering the pivotal 25km points race.
Gate dominated from the get-go, gaining points from the first six sprints, including a win and four second placings. He also took up the chase of Australia's nine-time world champion, Cameron Meyer, with both riders gained the 20 points bonus for lapping the field.
The New Zealand rider built an 18-point advantage on Kluge and 21 points on Hashimoto with laps running out, but both challengers were too spent from Gate’s fierce early attacks to mount any further serious attacks.
He won the points race with 134 points overall, with Kluge second on 116 and Hashimoto third on 113.
Earlier, Natasha Hansen was eighth fastest in 10.669s and Olivia Podmore 11th in a personal-best 10.804s in the women’s individual sprint qualifying.
Both won their first-round match clashes, but lost out in tight finishes in the second round. Hansen lost to Ukraine’s Olena Starikova by 0.08s, while only 0.01s separated Podmore and Colombia’s Bayona Pineda.
World champion Wai Sze Lee won the gold medal in two straight rides over Australian Stephanie Morton.
Newcomer Callum Saunders, an upset winner of the men’s keirin on his World Cup debut in Hong Kong, had to settle for ninth place overall, finishing third in the consolation final, after winning his opening heat and missing out in the second round.
Colombia’s Kevin Quintero Chabarro won the final from Australia’s Matthew Glaetzer.
The Australian pairing of Georgia Baker and Annette Edmondson took out the 30km madison with 56 points, from France 51 and USA 32, with the New Zealand pairing of Racquel Sheath and Rushlee Buchanan 10th.
In the final day on Sunday, Ethan Mitchell and Sam Webster compete in the individual sprint, Hansen and Ellesse Andrews in the keirin, Holly Edmondston in the women's omnium, with Aaron Gate and Tom Sexton in the madison.
