Meares takes double gold on final day in Melbourne

OLYMPIC silver medallist Anna Meares captured two golds on the final day of the UCI World Cup in Melbourne to cap a dominant week for the host nation.

GOLDEN GIRL: Anna Meares collects double gold on final day of UCI World Cup in Melbourne (Getty Images)

The 26-year old had already won sprint gold and team sprint bronze in Australia.  She added 500m time trial and keirin honours to her collection on Saturday.

The Australian, who edged out Britain's Victoria Pendleton to win the time trial at the opening World Cup of the season in Manchester two weeks ago, was even more dominant on her home track.  She rode to a new national record to knock 0.049 seconds off her winning time from Manchester.

Meares eventually crossed the line in 33.583 secs with fellow Australian Kaarle McCulloch 0.684 secs back in second and France's Sandie Clair another 0.072 secs back in third.

The Australian had to work harder for her keirin prize and to come from the back of the field with two laps remaining to claim victory - ahead of China's Shuang Guo and Germany's Christin Muche.

But an exhausted Meares admitted she was relieved after concerns she had taken on too many events in Melbourne.

"I had a really busy schedule this evening so I was a little bit worried that I'd taken on too much," said Meares.

"But I knew that once I had completed the time trial, I could just concentrate on the keirin and give one last push.

"It was difficult to adapt when things didn't go my way straight away. I was really hurting early on but once I got into the higher gears I began to feel more comfortable and thankfully brought it home."

Moments after Meares' keirin victory, home-favourite Shane Perkins struck Australia's 17th gold of the event in the men's sprint.

The 22-year old missed out on the medals after a fourth place in Manchester but was defending champion in Melbourne and needed just two heats to defeat French rider Kevin Sireau for the win.

Britain's Matt Crampton, who struck silver behind Sir Chris Hoy in Manchester, took bronze in Melbourne, beating fellow-Brit Ross Edgar in two straight heats.

New Zealand took the honours in Saturday's other two finals with Marc Ryan and Thomas Scully coming out on top in the men's madison and Kaytee Boyd, Lauren Ellis and Alison Shanks victorious in the women's team pursuit.

After her individual pursuit gold on Thursday, Britain's Wendy Houvenaghel picked up her second medal of the event, finishing second in the team pursuit with Katie Colclough and Joanna Roswell.