FOUR gold medals, a surprise silver and a personal best - Eliza Bennett's performance at the Cycling NSW Under 19s Track Championship left selectors with an easy choice when it came to naming a state team.
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Bennett's dominance of the sprint events - she was dubbed as "basically an unbackable favourite" - secured her place in the six-rider NSW under 19s female team which will head to nationals early next month.
Held at Sydney's Dunc Gray Velodrome over three days, the Bathurst Cycling Club member and Western Region Academy of Sport squad rider won the keirin, time trial, sprint and scratch events and was runner-up in the individual pursuit.
While she had been in ominous touch on the track this season - her first at under 19s level - the talented teen was still surprised with her haul.
"I was feeling alright, I had been riding well so far this year, but you are still a little nervous when you go into these events as you don't know what the other girls have been doing," she said.
"I wasn't expecting all four though and the silver was the biggest surprise for me because that was in the pursuit, that was pretty unexpected.
"I don't think anyone was expecting it, people were quite surprised I entered the pursuit. They were like 'That's ridiculous, surely you're not going to ride it?'. But I thought I might as well give it a go and it worked out good."
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Bennett was the the second fastest qualifier for Sunday's pursuit final and finished as runner-up to Tahlia Dole in the gold medal ride.
Dole was the rider she beat out for gold in the 7.5 kilometre scratch final.
She was 1.47 seconds quicker than her rival in the time trial decider and clocked a 11.754 personal best in the flying 200 to qualify for the sprint gold medal ride. However, Bennett still feels there are areas in which she wants to improve.
"For my 500 I was a little bit disappointed with the time, it wasn't a PB, it was maybe 0.1 off a PB, so hopefully at nationals I can fix that," she said.
"The flying 200 to qualify for the sprints, I was really happy with that because I PB'd by 0.1, I'm now down to 11.7.
"I hate the first day, I think that's why the 500 wasn't the best, I never do well in my very first event. I like to get that first day down and then the next day is more calm."
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Now Bennett's focus is on building towards nationals. It will be the first time she tackles the boards in Brisbane and she is keen to challenge herself against Australia's best under 19s.
"With training we are obviously targeting nationals … state was a check up to see how I was going," she said.
"I've got three good weeks of training now before I have to start to bring it back down ahead of nationals, but I think if I can keep training as well as I can, I should be right.
"The hardest bit [in 19s] is probably the gears because you go from being restricted to having whatever you want. You've got to start training big weights so you can have bigger muscles to push the bigger gears, so that's another element of training.
"Because some of the girls are older than me, to try and stay at their level is a good challenge for me."
The nationals will be staged at Brisbane's Anna Meares Velodrome from April 3-6.