Victorians Jenni King and Daniel McConnell won their respective elite cross-country races at the Australian mountain bike championships at Adelaide’s Eagle MTB Park on Saturday.

King completed five laps of the challenging course in 1hr 25min 54.1sec to win the women’s race from Tasmanian Rowena Fry while Queenslander Jodie Willett was third.

McConnell clocked 1:26:15.3 over six laps to finish 1:09.7 ahead of fellow Victorian Paul Van Der Ploeg.

Both races were reduced by one lap due to the oppressive heat.

For King, it was her eighth win from 10 starts this season, boosting the Olympic MTB chances for a rider who also races on the road with pro team GreenEDGE.

Her attention now turns to the UCI World Cup season, kicking off in South Africa March 17-18, with Olympic selection her ultimate goal.

“It’s not going to be easy, but it is looking more realistic for me now and I’ll definitely give it my best shot,” said King.

Fry shares a London ambition and says her combination of MTB and road racing will help.

“I head to Europe for the Classics road season in Europe on Monday which will be very, very good for my strength and hopefully come the first MTB World Cup I’m riding a good 10 per cent better,” the Tasmanian said.

McConnell enjoyed his second national championship, the first being at the same track in 2010.

“It’s better the second time around and its an Olympic year so it builds up a lot of confidence leading into the rest of the season,” the 26-year-old said.

Runner-up van der Ploeg put in a strong effort in his inaugural national championships ride in the elite class after back-to-back wins in the U23 category.