Michael Hepburn outpaced fellow Australian and world record-holder Jack Bobridge to claim the individual pursuit title as the host dominated the World Track Cycling Championships Saturday. Australia claimed three gold medals on the fourth day at Melbourne's Hisense Arena and leads the championships tally with five golds and a total of 12 medals. Britain is second with five golds and eight medals overall, ahead of Germany with two golds and a bronze. Hepburn, who qualified fastest earlier in the day, beat Bobridge by more than half a second. New Zealand's Westley Gough spoiled the home riders' hopes of an all-Australian podium by beating Rohan Dennis for the bronze. Frenchman Gregory Bauge won the men's sprint in contentious circumstances after Britain's Jason Kenny had his finals-leveling win overturned in the second heat. After Bauge took a highly tactical first heat, Kenny made an early break in the second and held on to force a decider, but after several minutes of deliberation officials ruled Kenny crossed the sprint line and reversed the outcome. Chris Hoy won the bronze when he beat Australia's Shane Perkins in consecutive rides. Kenny earlier improved his chances of claiming the sprint berth on the British Olympic squad after beating Hoy to reach the finals. The world championships is the last Olympic qualifier before the London Games, and changes to the qualification process dictate that each nation can only have one representative in the sprint events at the Games. Anna Meares of Australia won a hard-fought sprint in the final meters to defend her women's keirin title. Meares reeled in the early breakaways to surge to the front of the pack in the final meters. Ekaterina Gnidenko of Russia was second with Germany's Kristina Vogel third. Earlier, Victoria Pendleton was eliminated from the keirin a day after claiming the sprint title. Pendleton scraped through early qualifying and advanced via the repechage, only to finish sixth and last in her second-round heat. Cameron Meyer gave Australia its third gold of the night when he took a lap with one lap remaining and held off Britain's Ben Swift in the final sprint to win the men's point race. Swift took second place ahead of Kenny De Ketele of Belgium in third. Laura Trott of Britain claimed her second winner's rainbow jersey at Melbourne's Hisense Arena when she won the final event of the multidiscipline omnium. Trott — a member of Britain's title-winning team pursuit squad Thursday — held off Annette Edmonson to win the omnium individual time trial and seal the six-discipline event by three points ahead of the Australian. Sarah Hammer of the US took the bronze.
