Cycling Ireland has named a small team for the European Track Championships which get underway in Grenchen, Switzerland, next week.
Emily Kay, Kelly Murphy, Alice Sharpe and Mia Griffin
have been selected to ride the team pursuit, as well as some individual events.
JB Murphy is the sole male rider on the team and he will
compete in the scratch, points and elimination races as well as the omnium.
Kay, Murphy, Sharpe and Griffin get Ireland’s campaign underway on Wednesday with qualifying in the team pursuit; an event where Ireland took gold at the UCI World Cup in Russia in July.
Kay - who replaces the injured Lara Gillespie in the team pursuit line-up - will also compete in the omnium and scratch race. She has previously ridden the Europeans for Team GB, winning five medals.
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Murphy and Griffin will ride the individual pursuit; an event they took gold and bronze in respectively in Russia in July. Murphy broke her own national record on the way to that win in St Petersburg while Griffin won bronze 12 months ago in the U23 individual pursuit at the Europeans.
Sharpe will ride the points race as well as the team pursuit, while two riders from the four women selected will also compete in the omnium at the Europeans.
Cycling Ireland’s interim head track cycling coach, Paul
Manning, will be taking charge of an Irish team for the first time and said he
was looking forward to the challenge.
“The elite European track championships in Grenchen,
Switzerland, represents the first step after Tokyo 2020 and on our journey
towards Paris 2024,” he said.
“The team is keen to test themselves against returning Tokyo Olympians and some new fresh faces at this level. We go into the event focusing on achieving our best performances.”
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