Nic Leary, the diminutive dynamo, celebrated her birthday in style by winning her first Oceania title in the cross-country on Saturday.
Leary, a Rotorua physiotherapist, turned 26 on Friday but delayed the celebration until she won the gold medal the next day.
Leary was always in control and won on the gruelling four-lap course at Forrester Park in 1hr 38min 23sec.
She was 1min 20sec in front of Rowena Fry (Australia), with Fiona Macdermid (Palmerston North) third in 1hr 49min 45sec.
Leary, a newcomer to mountain biking, is only in her second season in the sport.
When she was a student at the University of Otago she played hockey and rugby and later tried her hand at multisport and was in a team in the Coast to Coast.
"I was a jack of all trades," Leary said after her race.
"I had encouraging results when I started mountain biking and have been committed to the sport for the last eight months."
She was 35th at last year's world championships in Canada and won the New Zealand title in Wellington last month.
The early pace was too slow and Leary took off like a startled rabbit up the first hill and got an early lead over defending champion Fry.
At the end of the first lap, Leary led the field by 28sec and increased the margin to 50sec at halfway.
Fry closed the gap to 46sec after three laps before Leary applied extra pressure in the final lap.
"I wanted to ride my own race," she said.
"The pace at the start was not that hot and I knew that if I went hard over the first lap the other girls would find it hard to catch me.
"I was more punishing on myself at the start and got the lungs firing."
On the second lap, Leary settled into an even pace and became clinical.
Fry did not feel good at the start and wanted to ease herself into the race and this enabled Leary to get a decisive early lead.
She was closing the gap on the third lap but got cramp on the hills and struggled on the last lap.
Macdermid (36), the oldest rider in the field and the mother of three children, finished strongly and almost caught Fry at the tape.
Dunedin's Anja McDonald was sixth in 1hr 44min 04sec.
The men's race was a triumph for the Australians, who filled five of the six top places.
It was only the third placing of New Zealand champion Mike Northcott (Tokoroa) that stopped the clean sweep.
He had trouble with his gears on the first two laps and only got into his rhythm when he switched to his granny gears (small gears at the back).
The men's elite race was a neck-and-neck battle between two Australians.
Lachlan Norris (23), who had won the Oceania under-23 title for the last two years, was attempting to topple defending champion Daniel McConnell (24).
They dominated the race from the start and led by 11sec after the first of the six laps, 34sec after two, 1min 09sec after three and 2min 24sec after four.
They reached top form on the fourth lap when they completed the lap in 19min 42sec to break the rest of the field.
McConnell managed to edge past Norris in the final 50m.
They were both timed at 2hr 02min 29sec.
Northcott was 4min 02sec back in third spot with a time of 2hr 06min 11sec.
New Zealanders Mathew Waghorn and Alexa Peters won the under-19 titles.
