Matt Richardson has won his duel for Australian sprint supremacy against Matt Glaetzer as both speedsters took medals on the final day of the world track cycling championships in France.
The 23-year old Perth powerhouse Richardson outrode his distinguished compatriot in their match sprint semi-final showdown before later on Sunday going on to take silver in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.
And after being beaten 2-0 in their best-of-three contest, 30-year-old former champion Glaetzer rebounded by sweeping Poland's Mateusz Rudyk in the bronze medal ride.
It was another breakthrough afternoon for Richardson, who won the Commonwealth crown in August, but he couldn't cope with one of cycling's modern greats, Dutch Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen, in the final of the blue riband event, being schooled 2-0.
The two medals were Australia's first at the five-day championships since the opening day when Richardson and Glaetzer were part of the four-strong outfit who took the team sprint gold.
Richardson was outstanding in his generational battle with his teammate, timing his attack perfectly in the opening race in which he was timed at 9.790sec over the last 200m to pip Adelaide's Glatezer by just 0.015.
In the second, after being caught slightly on the hop, he made up a deficit with an even more searing 9.684sec finish to win by 0.038.
But the final was a wholly different story, with reigning champ Lavreysen, described as "virtually unbeatable" by British Olympic great Sir Chris Hoy, simply too good for Richardson, winning almost as he pleased with last-200m times of 9.686 and 9.773.
The Australian team were unable to land any more medals over the week beyond the men's sprinters' haul and the final tally of one gold, one silver and one bronze left them seventh on a medal table headed by Netherlands and Italy with four golds apiece.
But Richardson's performance was a huge boost at the velodrome just outside Paris which will host the Olympics track cycling two years hence.
The short, stocky British-born rocket, who moved to Western Australia when he was nine because of his father's work, was a good enough young gymnast to win a bronze at the Australian junior championships before an elbow injury at 14 prompted him to turn to cycling.
And Richardson's rise has been another success story for the Midland Cycling club in Perth, the same nursery that produced Giro d'Italia winner Jai Hindley.
The championships overall, however, felt like that of a team still in development, with no medals in the endurance events.
On the final day, Kelland O'Brien and Sam Welsford flattered to deceive in the madison, opening a brief lead with 20 points for stealing a lap on the field but eventually fading to 10th as French duo Donavan Grondin and Benjamin Thomas were cheered to victory by the home fans.
Josh Duffy was 14th in the 24-strong elimination race, which featured Italian sprint star Elia Viviani surviving to outpace New Zealand's Corbin Strong over the last lap and successfully defend his crown.
The Australian women didn't earn a medal for a second successive year, with Chloe Moran not troubling the scorers in a points race won by Britain's Neah Evans and Kristina Clonan eliminated in the keirin quarter-finals before German Lea Friedrich went on to strike gold.
