A shift to second wheel in the team sprint has paved the way for Nathan Hart to claim his first individual sprint title at the national track cycling championships in Brisbane this week.
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Hart defeated South Australian James Brister in the sprint final on Thursday to claim gold, adding a move to second wheel in the team event has helped him to cope with the training demands of the individual event.
Hart topped qualifying on Wednesday for the men's sprint, posting a time of 9.762 seconds, before going on to defeat NSW's Charles Hoffman and South Australia's Patrick Constable in semi-finals.
But Hart missed out on a podium spot in the men's keirin event on Saturday, finishing behind Tom Clarke, Brister and Matthew Richardson.
Hart's latest triumph comes after he won gold in the sprint at January's World Cup in New Zealand and finished sixth in the sprint at the world championships in Poland last month.
"The thing that I was a bit unsure of was where my form would have been in comparison to where I was a month ago in the world champs," he said.
"The time that I rode in qualifying [in Brisbane] wasn't all that different [to my time in Poland]. The thing that I probably lacked was a bit of race fitness, I guess, just backing round after round."
Hart said this year he had come in to the national championships with his best form but was quick to point out Matthew Glaetzer, who has been the sprint cyclist to beat, had missed the national championships while he was racing in Japan.
"Meaning it was a good opportunity for me to win and I'm glad I was able to pull it off," Hart said.
A late decision before the world championships saw Hart switch from first wheel to second wheel, which has a training regime more closely aligned with training for individual sprints.
"I do have a desire to race the sprint, I'm really enjoying it and having fun and [enjoying the] process of learning new things," Hart said.
"It's just another challenge after doing first wheel team sprint for so long – it's good to change up what my focus is on."
Hart said a first wheel rider used smaller gears that did not translate well to the bigger gears sprint riders used, which was part of the reason he had switched to a second wheel team sprint rider.
Now Hart is focused on a long period of training before the Berlin world championships early in 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics halfway through next year.
"Just a lot of training will build the foundation for results hopefully to be had in Tokyo," Hart said.
