Alessia McCaig wins third straight keirin national championship

A hat-trick of consecutive elite women's keirin national titles has been clinched by Alessia McCaig on a triumphant Saturday night at the 2025 AusCycling Track National Championships in Brisbane.

McCaig looked to have made a comfortable race-winning move in the final lap, but the 21-year-old was pressured all the way to the line through the final corner and straight by silver medallist Deneaka Blinco after space was left for the Queenslander to slot in underneath the eventual champion.

However, McCaig produced enough speed to hold off Blinco and the fall of her three-peat ambitions at the top of Australian women's keirin racing.

"It was a great race, Deneaka raced really well, all the girls raced really well," McCaig said.

"I'm very, very relieved to get this medal and super excited to go back-to-back-to-back.

"I knew drawing two that I had to try and defend my position.

"If the back riders didn't go, then I didn't really need to go and I could have just waited until the end, but it worked out that I happened to grab a wheel and I stuck to it and then just went at about half a lap to go and just put it all into the race.

"I'm really, really happy and relieved. It's been a tough training block and I'm excited to have a little mental circuit breaker now before we get back into some hard training."

The Victorian's keirin trifecta completes another successful TrackNats campaign for the young star of Australian women's sprinting and marks her seventh national champion jersey in three years.

"It felt like a slow journey at the start and I think there was a lot of growth in my first year of elite racing and then it just started to roll and all the base that I built over the last 12 to 24 months is really coming out now," McCaig said.

"That's really exciting and I'm excited to see what the future holds."

Western Australia's Kristine Perkins finished as the bronze medallist.

Feature picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam