Tyler Puzicha, Kalinda Robinson and Eliza Bennett returned from the recent NSW Under 15s and 17s Track Championships at Dunc Gray Velodrome with a haul of 11 medals between them, five of which were gold.

Puzicha came away with three of the gold medals (scratch, time trial and sprint) while Bennett claimed the other two (time trial, sprint).

The super trio are no strangers to success on the state stage but they found yet another level on the Sydney track, according to Bathurst Cycling Club junior track co-coach Damien Bennett.

“They’ve all been training very hard so they expected to go down there and impress,” he said.

“Tyler showed some great form and Kalinda’s improved her racing a lot over the past 12 months. She’s always been on the fringe of the medals and now she’s winning them.

“Because the two of them are in the same age group they feed off each other and push each other a lot.”

There was no better example of the pair pushing each other than in the under 15s individual pursuit on Saturday, where they came head-to-head in the ride for bronze.

Just .25 of a second separated the pair at the line. Puzicha took the medal with a time of two minutes and 48.929 seconds, Robinson was home in 2:49.179.

On Friday’s opening day Puzicha got her championships off to an excellent start with a gold in the scratch race.

The time trial  was the best event of the meeting for the Bathurst riders. Puzicha and Robinson went 1-2 in the under 15s while in the 17s Bennett scraped home by .03 of a second ahead of the next best contender to win gold.

Puzicha returned on Saturday to claim a silver in the keirin. Both Robinson and Bennett just missed out on a podiums in fourth.

Like Puzicha, Bennett also claimed a bronze medal in her individual pursuit – an impressive performance from a rider who would consider herself a stronger sprinter.

“Eliza surprised herself with the pursuit medal. She had never been in a final ride off for the pursuit. She’s normally more of a sprinter,” Damien Bennett said.

“We set her a time that we thought she could do, which happened to be six seconds better than her personal best … and then she won the medal by taking another two seconds off the ride she qualified with.

“It was a long three days … but our girls had been working on their endurance, and towards the end it started to show. When Eliza got to the final of the sprint, the other rider, Tess Wallace, was exhausted but Eliza still had the legs.”

The Bathurst girls finished their competition on a high note with Puzicha and Bennett winning gold in the sprint.

Robinson picked up the bronze.

Bathurst Cycling Club’s Luke Tuckwell and Jed Powell also took part in the championships and scored themselves some high non-championship finishes.

Powell was the best of his group in the sprint and Tuckwell finished second in the keirin.

Tuckwell also finished seventh a competitive championship scratch race.