Cycling’s track championships are quickly becoming Darren Matthews’ personal showcase.
The country’s best rider continues to prove why he should be regarded as such after completing victory in the first ever Omnium before lapping almost the entire field in an open scratch race to cap Friday’s second night of the National Championships at the Randolph Field Velodrome.
It was the second such dominant performance in as many nights from the standout 22-year-old, who kicked off the meet on Thursday with a victory in the seniors’ kilo and opening a lead following the first three events of the six-race Omnium.
Matthews swiftly ended any hopes of an improbable upset in the multi-race affair by breaking his own track record in the individual pursuit with a clocking of five minutes, 3.08 seconds before going on to win the event’s kilometre race.
Ross Callender momentarily broke up his G4S Swift teammate’s dominance by taking the Omnium’s scratch race to relegate him to third in that race but Matthews still eventually topped the table with ten penalty points.
A-Class Golden Wheelers’ impressive first-year junior Edwin Sutherland completed a fine showing by coming second with 18 points while fellow junior Joshua Kelly of iExchange Team Excel used a pair of second-place finishes in the scratch race and kilo to end third on 20 points.
Matthews wasn’t done just yet, though, returning to blast a highly-competitive field in the open scratch after Sutherland and Illusion Graphics Fugen junior Kristin Vanderpool made a threatening run just two laps in.
But that victory didn’t come without contention as many people in the crowd felt Matthews cut dangerously in front of Sutherland when he made his move with ten laps remaining in the 25-lap event.
However, the judges ruled that Matthews had more than a clear bike length’s lead on the junior while he made the last of his three attacks with Sutherland trying to hang on for dear life.
In the end, Matthews simply left all in his wake before basically lapping the peloton with three laps to go when he ended up chasing down what was supposed to be the chase pack.
Earlier, unattached rider Edward Julien continued his domination of the masters category when he coasted to victory in the individual pursuit with a time of four minutes, 7.14 seconds. It was his third title overall following victories in the keirin and kilo.
Fellow independent Sean Maloney (4:14.44) was second while Team Swift’s Ivan Puckerin (4:36.66) finished third.
Talented teen Amber Joseph (4:48.87) downed Excel teammate Deidre Mayers in the women’s equivalent after the latter comfortably beat her in two straight rides to take the match sprint.
Team Swift’s Tremaine Forde-Catwell (2:49.46) had an impressive showing in winning the tiny mites’ individual pursuit ahead of Excel’s Jacob Kelly (2:53.49) and clubmate Dean Holder (3:06.96), who finished second and third, respectively.
The championships were set to conclude last night with the finals of the match sprint for the elite, juniors, masters and juveniles along with the team sprints and the elite and juniors’ individual pursuit.