THREE Poole riders struck gold in a busy weekend of racing in the South West individual finals at the Harbourside Park track.

The event saw 76 riders contest across eight different age categories over 91 races, squeezed into a six-hour programme before a bumper crowd.

Poole’s Ben Mould clinched the Open title with a faultless unbeaten maximum in the finale with Zac Payne (Oxford) and Poole’s Aaron Smith in third.

Josh Nottle took the honours in the under-14 event, with team-mate Kenzie Bennett in second and Macie Schmidt picked up the women’s title to complete the golden hat-trick.

Comets riders used their home track knowledge to their advantage winning a further eight medals to take the club’s total to 11.

A full 16-rider line-up began in the under-8s with Newport’s Tyler Davies taking the honours ahead of Poole’s Sonny Dymond.

Jack Tidball was comfortably racing his way through to the under-10 final with a quartet of Poole riders – Jamie Randall, Sam Fones, Teddy Curtis and Reily Nation – requiring an eliminator for the remaining three places after tying on 13 points. Curtis missed out with Poole’s Randall and Fones rounding off the top three in the final behind Exeter star Tidball.

Tidball’s club-mate JJ Wildman lived up to his billing as favourite in the under-12s with Poole duo Daisy Sherwood and Ollie Saunders picking up medals. Bennett missed his chance after colliding with Wildman in heat three. It was then an Exeter one-two in the girls’ under-16 race with Rosie Tidball and Miah Laing forcing Comets’ Jasmine Oddie into third.

But the two final events of the day saw Poole claim both titles.

Schmidt raced away from gate three in the women’s contest, but the race was cut short at the end of lap three following a crash between Lauren Hookway and Laing. The result stood with Schmidt crowned victorious.

And the day concluded with a thrilling win for Mould in the senior final. A bike failure hampered expected challenger Lukas Nowacki in the opening race and after knocking off three consecutive wins, Mould pulled off the pass of the day in heat 15 to storm past Nowacki and strengthen his charge. He needed to clinch victory in the final heat to ensure top spot and Mould did not disappoint to earn another win for Comets.

Poole club official Pete Barnes was full of praise for all the Comets competitors as well as the off track club volunteers whose tireless efforts ensured that the day-long event reached the standard that the club is recognised for throughout the cycling world.