Fourth time's the charm: James Moriarty wins first elite national title in individual pursuit

After falling short in three elite men's individual pursuit gold medal finals since 2021, James Moriarty has finally claimed the national title he has been chasing and his first at the elite level.

Moriarty comfortably became the new national champion on the opening night of the 2025 AusCycling Track National Championships at Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane, besting fellow Queenslander Noah Blannin in the gold medal final by 7.453 seconds after stopping the clock at 4:13.134.

In the absence of outgoing five-time champion Conor Leahy, Moriarty set his own personal challenge of knocking off Leahy's national record time of 4:07.356.

The 23-year-old fell just short of his goal in qualifying, posting a personal best time of 4:08.113, good enough for a new championship record.

All in all, Moriarty said he was proud of his maiden national title performance.

The win is James Moriarty's first elite national title. (Picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam)

"That was my fourth IP final and it ended up being my first elite national title, so yes, it was really, really good," Moriarty said.

"I knew in Conor's absence, being that he had won the last five times, that there was more of an opportunity and towards the end of last year I targeted the national record.

"I had a good crack at it this morning but came up short, but I'm still happy to take the championship record and sort of stamp my mark in Conor's absence.

"I took a lot of confidence from the Olympics staging camps that we were doing in Portugal last year, where I recorded an unofficial national record time, so I missed that mark but to lower my PB and set that record is something to be proud of."

Western Australian John Carter denied Queensland a clean sweep of the podium, defeating Declan Trezise in the bronze medal final.

Moriarty's success headlined a night of wins for Queensland riders, with both opening under-19 events falling in favour of the maroon kit.

Ella Liang, Olivia Wright and Milan Bradshaw won gold in the junior women's team sprint and set a new championship record at 51.266 seconds.

"We're really happy to have done it because Olivia has come to the sport very strong in the last two years and Milan the same but coming from BMX. BMX riders always make for really good starters so it was the perfect team for us and it went really well," Liang said.

That was followed by a six laps to go flyer from Thomas Waites, a recent convert from mountain biking, that delivered him a memorable national title in the junior men's scratch race to end the night.

"The plan was to go pretty early because I knew I wouldn't be too good in the sprint with my lack of experience. I could hear (Jordan) Kerby yelling, just telling me to go, so I backed it and went," Waites said.

Feature picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam