WEST Australian young gun Sam Washington marked his first Bendigo International Madison carnival with a night one victory in the Golden Mile Wheelrace (1600m) on Saturday at the Tom Flood Sports Centre.
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Racing off the 60m mark on what was a perfect March night after the temperature had earlier peak at 37.4 degrees, Washington tuned up for Sunday night's men's Madison by adding his name to the Golden Mile honour board in what's a race that has a history back to 1956.
Sponsored for the first time by Agnico Eagle Fosterville, 16-year-old Washington beat fellow teenager Wil Holmes (60m), who was second, while third and fourth placings were filled by Bendigo riders Alessia McCaig (160m) and Blake Agnoletto (scratch), who was aiming for back-to-back having won it when the carnival was last held in 2020.
"Having such a stacked field tonight, it's absolutely amazing to win," Washington said.
"Having Wil alongside me was great, especially having raced with him through the junior ranks and now coming up to the elite men... being here tonight is great.
"Wil and I got together and tried to team up to see if we could get the money... just rip it as much as possible and luckily, I was able to hang on at the end and finish it off."
A field of 20 contested the final of the Golden Mile Wheelrace.
Agnoletto and Sophie Edwards both qualified for the Golden Mile Wheelrace final having earlier in the night won the male and female A grade 12 lap scratch races.
Among the athletics winners on Saturday night's opening of the carnival was Bendigo's Jake Hilson, who prevailed in the men's 800m.
Racing off 44m Hilson won in a time of 1:50.098 ahead of Richard Polkinghorne (1:51.732) and Marcus Overman (1:51.930).
"It's one of the biggest events for the year, so I'm really happy to come away with a win in front of the crowd again after a long hiatus," Hilson said.
"It's good to see everyone back again... you wouldn't be able to run that quick without the crowd cheering you on, so it was great a feeling."
And it was a successful day for the Fast Track squad, which scored a trefecta in the 70m sprint final, plus the 120m under-18 male and female finals.
Endale Mekonnen was the first to triumph in the 70m final, before younger brother Kidus Mekonnen won the under-18 male 120m final and Miriam Suares-Jury completed the Fast Track treble in the under-18 female 120m final.
"I didn't have any expectations today; I just wanted to come and have a run. It was a quality field and a quality run," Endale Mekonnen said after winning the 70m.
Kidus Mekonnen said it gave him an added boost of motivation to win his 120m final moments after seeing Endale win the 70m.
"We both said we wanted to do the double and we got it done, so it was great," Kidus said.
"I was confident coming up here today. I didn't have any setbacks leading in, so I was locked in and ready to go."
Suares-Jury was rapt she could complete the trifecta for the Fast Track squad coached by John Hilditch.
"It was a good race; all the girls ran really well and it has been a really good day in Bendigo," Suares-Jury said.
