Kelland O'Brien and Blake Agnoletto win 2023 Madison National Championship

Kelland O’Brien and Blake Agnoletto have won a thrilling edition of the elite men’s Madison national championship race in front of just over 1000 people at Darebin International Sports Centre Velodrome in Melbourne on Saturday night.

The two Victorians kept the points situation in their control for the majority of the 200 laps, eventually winning by 19 points ahead of Graeme Frislie and Liam Walsh.

Conor Leahy and 17-year-old Wil Holmes finished with a hard-fought bronze medal after leapfrogging Queenslanders James Moriarty and Tyler Tomkinson by winning the final double points sprint.

The victory is O’Brien’s fourth Madison success in six years, all with different partners. For 21-year-old Agnoletto, it is his first.

Kelland O'Brien and Blake Agnoletto are the newest elite men's Madison national champions. Picture: Josh Chadwick

“The depth in the field is pretty good, it was a hotly contested race,” O’Brien said.

“We knew we had to just chip away and be consistent all night and see how it played out in the final stretch.

“Hats off to Blake today, he was amazing. He carried me through that whole middle section of the race and I can’t thank my partner enough.”

An early crash for Frislie with only 24 laps raced led to a slow start for O’Brien and Agnoletto’s closest rivals on the night, who took full advantage of only Walsh circulating by gaining an early points buffer.

Liam Walsh on the attack. Picture: Josh Chadwick

When Frislie returned to the race several laps later, he and Walsh went immediately on the offensive and were the dominant team for the next 50 laps, getting as close as five points behind O’Brien and Agnoletto at the halfway mark of the race.

But that would be as close as the two would get to the eventual national champions, who applauded the efforts of the silver medallists post-race.

“It was really unfortunate about Liam and Graeme’s (crash) and we hope they’re both alright – I think they are,” O’Brien said.

“They fought really hard tonight and hats off to them for keeping their heads on after a crash like that and putting on a good show.”

The second elite national track title of Agnoletto’s career caps off a season of several milestones for the Bendigo product, who debuted for the ARA Australian Cycling Team in February at the Jakarta UCI Track Nations Cup.

At the next round in April, he would win his first international medal, an elimination race silver in Milton, Canada.

It is also redemption after losing the Madison title on the last lap 12 months ago.

“I’ve been second for two years in a row and last year was very bittersweet, but I took a lot out of that and this year I got to team up with Kell,” Agnoletto said.

“Hopefully in the future we’ll be teaming up again. I knew we could ride well together and we knew we had the distance in us and every time we were just chipping away, slowly getting points.

“We didn’t have to worry; we knew we had the backend in us and when we got to the last 50, we knew we had it pretty close to sewn up. We had a few more sprints and then just had to try and keep the race together.

“Hats off to Kell, he was just speaking to me the whole race – telling me to breathe, telling me to stay calm and I’m still young in this sport, so to have someone like Kell who has done countless Mados is invaluable.”

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Feature picture: Josh Chadwick