Limestone Coast Regional Sporting Academy (LCRSA) athletes Kai Arbery and Niel Van Niekerk have cycled to success.

The duo claimed gold in the U19 National Team Sprint in the 2023 AusCycling Elite, Junior 19 and Para Track National Championships.

The two Mount Gambier athletes were selected from the state titles for the national team to compete at the prestigious Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane, which hosted the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Arbery, Van Niekerk and their Adelaide teammate Tatye Ryan made the executive decision under South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) sprint coach James Glasspool to change up the order of their ride at the eleventh hour, a unusual situation in the sport.

The switch saw Van Niekerk swap from third rider to first, Arbury from starting to second and Ryan leading the charge instead of last.

“For the last six months we have been training in that (original) position just because I was more of an enduro so that was kind of better for me and Kai was the best starter and Tayte was a really fast rider,” Van Niekerk said.

“We did the qualifier, and it did not turn out as what we were expecting so we switched it up last minute to me starting, Kai second and Tayte last.

“There was a lot of technical stuff that we had not done before which we got right somehow.”

“It was really nerve-wracking because Neil has never been in first, I have never been in second and Tayte probably has not been in third,” Arbery said.

The South Australian team placed second out of four states in the qualifier, only behind New South Wales (47 seconds) but were not satisfied with 47.9 seconds.

Van Niekerk said they were ‘shocked’ to record a faster time at the state titles than the national qualifier despite having trained for an additional six months.

“We knew we could go faster, we had done it in training,” Arbery said.

“He (Glasspool) has coached the under 19s team sprint for years and the last four years, not including this year, he’s won the team sprint so there was a lot of pressure to try and keep the streak going.”

“Especially after we qualified second (by) a pretty big gap,” Van Niekerk said.

“We took off one and a half seconds which is a lot from a sprinting standpoint.”

The South Australian riders beat New South Wales in the final with a winning time of 46.4 seconds compared to their competitor’s time of 46.6 seconds.

“It was pretty close in the end as well so both of us rode heaps quicker in the final than we did in the qualifier,” Van Niekerk said.

“How the age groups work is there are two years an age group so we are bottom age so we will still get to ride next year as well in the same age group so that works out better for the team.

“We’re aiming for the championship record for next year (46 seconds) which we were very close.”

While Arbery has been riding for over two years in sprint Van Niekerk only made the switch from enduro late last year, which he attributed to his local teammate.

“It’s just because Kai is actually a good sprinter that’s down here and he can help me push myself,” Van Niekerk said.

“It’s definitely handy having someone else who does the same as you because you can relate to someone that is neck and neck with you,” Arbery agreed.

Arbery is a success of the LCRSA Talent ID, a program in which the academy travels to schools to find eligible cyclists.

Academy cycling head coach Rob Mann said whereas other sports could select players already competing, in cycling they had to scout new athletes.

“Kai was a part of the talent ID so what that means is we go to schools, we put them on spin bikes, we measure their power output and then we look at riders who are meeting certain criteria,” he said.

“Kai is probably the pinup rider for our program, he went to Grant High then he came here to see how he could go with it.

“Our aim is to put kids in the state team.

“They are there, we just have to find them.

“Every regional rider we find is one less that has to come from Adelaide.”

Jesse Tull and Jami Buckley also emerged from the talent ID program and will both compete in the U17 National Titles at the 2023 AusCycling Junior Track National Championships next week.

Buckley will team up with cyclists from Adelaide to represent the state in enduro whilst Tull will compete in sprint.

Buckley said he has been riding for close to three years and training for nationals for 18 months.

“That states just gone was my first successful campaign so sitting and watching the kids get up on the podiums it was nice be up there,” he said.

“Most days of the week I am on the bike, if not twice a day.”

Buckley said Arbery and Van Niekerk’s success in nationals had motivated him to bring home another jersey for the club.

“They have a bit of race experience so grab as much of that off them as we can,” he said.

Tull said he was excited for the opportunity, having only started in the sport eight months ago.

“I was nervous, but I came to the conclusion that I am not going down there to win, I am going down there to get experience for when I will be going since I have not been doing it that long,” he said.

“(I want to) hust give it a real good crack and just soak up the experience when nationals come around.”