Cycling Ireland has said it expects the long-mooted velodrome for Dublin to be delivered before the 2024 Olympic Games, adding Sam Bennett's success at the Tour had underlined the need for it.
The chief executive of the national governing body, Matt
McKerrow, said Cycling Ireland had been told by Sport Ireland the velodrome was
the next major item of sports infrastructure that would be built.
"There are plans for a velodrome on the National Sports Campus," McKerrow said.
"Hopefully there's not too much of an impact of
Covid on development but the velodrome is the next facility to be built.
"The folks at Sport Ireland assure me it’s the next
priority. We would be hopeful that would happen at some stage in the Paris
cycle," he said in reference to the Olympics in 2024.
Advertisement
McKerrow was appointed to the top job in Cycling Ireland
just over a year ago, in May of last year, at which point the velodrome had
been promised for over a decade.
Related News
While planning permission had been granted for the velodrome on the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown in 2015, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Eamon Ryan TD (Greens) just last month said Sport Ireland reviewed the plan late last year.
That review involved some changes to the shared 250-metre velodrome and badminton facility and a fresh planning application will be required.
Ryan added the velodrome would be subject to ministerial
approval and dependent on funding being available.
The need for the facility has really come into focus again in the wake of Sam Bennett’s success at the Tour de France; his green jersey win and final stage into Paris finally securing for him, and Irish cycling, very significant media coverage.
Matt McKerrow acknowledged that pressing need for the
velodrome, saying what Bennett had achieved was fantastic.
"A velodrome setting really becomes a hub for the sport, where we can teach people,” he told RTÉ Sport on trying to capitalise on Bennett’s success.
"It’s the home of cycling, if you like, so when the
future generations see Sam Bennett, and what he has achieved, there’s a place
for them to come and learn.”
Topics
