Luke Meier-Smith has laid down the gauntlet posting the fastest time in seeding at the 2026 GWM Mountain Bike National Championships making his intentions to clinch a fourth consecutive downhill national title clear.
The three-time national champion navigated the slick and slippery Mt Buller track to set a time of 2:58.887 minutes.
"It was pretty dicey at the top. It's easy to go too hard and waste a lot of energy. It sort of got a little bit sketchy at the top and then I dialled it back through the mid-section," Meier said.
"It's such a physical track, so many tight, slow turns where you need to pedal out and it's quite awkward, so definitely a hard track to race. I'm happy enough with the run, I think I've got a little bit more tomorrow. Hopefully it continues to dry, its hard to know how much you can roll the dice.
Elleni Turkovic, in her first racing up in the Elite category, set a blistering time of 3:29.345 minutes, eight seconds ahead of the defending champion Sian A'Hern.
"It was real slippy, I was not ready for that. It was like I had a sleep and just woke up," she said.
"I just pulled all my lines together and tried my best."
But it was U19 rider Tilly Boadle who set the fastest women's time with a time of 3:29.252.
Oliver Colthup posted the quickest time of the U19 men, despite casing a gap and headbutting his stem and his visor came off.
Elite men's seeding
- Luke Meier-Smith - 2:58.887
- Jackson Connelly - 3:00.765
- Kye A'Hern - 3:01.636
Elite women's seeding
- Elleni Turkovic - 3:29.345
- Sian A'Hern - 3:37.490
- Sacha Mills - 3:39.668
See the full seeding results here.