AUSTRALIA’S Anna Meares took out a golden double as Australia finished the top nation at the UCI Melbourne track cycling World Cup leg on Saturday.

Meares won the keirin and 500m time trial gold medals with her proud country Australia completing the three-day event winning eight of the 17 events at their home leg.

Meares came from behind with two laps left in the six-lap keirin to shade her Chinese rival Guo Shuang and Christin Muche of Germany in the final.

“I was really quite worried about the load this evening and once the 500 (time trial) was out the way, I really didn’t get the chance to celebrate, I was straight into the mindset of the keirin,” Meares told AFP.

 ”I was tired, I was hurting, but I actually felt half decent.”

After two legs, Australia led the overall World Cup standings with 210 points, 11 points ahead of Britain (199) with Germany (189) third.

Meares, who won the 500m time trial in the second-fastest time in history at 33.583 seconds, came away with three gold medals at the event following her earlier victory in the sprint.

Lithuanian Simona Krupeckaite holds the 500m time trial world record at 33.296.

Meares suffered a serious neck injury in a race fall in January last year and this was only the second time she has won a World Cup keirin gold medal.

Other Australians to dominate were Shane Perkins, who riding for the Australian Jayco professional team, beat Frenchman Kevin Sireau two heats to nil to take out the men’s sprint.

New Zealand won two gold medals on the final night in the women’s team pursuit and men’s madison.

The Kiwis finished second overall to Australia in the Melbourne leg with Germany third. The third World Cup leg will be staged in Cali, Colombia, from December 10-12.

With AFP