Cycling Ireland has named 10 riders in the Irish team for the World Track Championships which gets underway in Berlin on Wednesday.
The championships, for which riders have to qualify,
are the last chance to score points towards Olympic 2020 qualification and the
Irish will be out to grab big results.
Last year the Irish team had a very good Worlds, when our riders claimed two medals and the team pursuit squad stepped up and smashed the Irish record.
In winning a bronze
medal in the points race at the Worlds in Poland last March, Mark Downey
made a bit of Irish sporting history.
He became the only Irish cyclist to win
medals at junior, U23 and elite level in major international championships
Also at those Worlds last March, Lydia
Boylan took a brilliant silver
in the points race and went very close to winning the title.
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The Dubliner became only the second Irish women to medal at the Worlds; Caroline Ryan the first when taking bronze, also in the points race, in Melbourne in 2012.
Boylan and Downey are back again in the
green of Ireland to take on the best in the world in Olympic year, when the
World Track Championships are generally at their most competitive.
The Irish team pursuit squad – Lara Gillespie,
Kelly Murphy, Alice Sharpe and Mia Griffin – also go back to the Worlds and it
should be interesting to see if they can add to the significant progress they
have already made.
All eyes will be on the Madison men’s
and women’s pairings – Mark Downey & Felix English and Lydia Gurley &
Lydia Boylan – to see if they can qualify for Tokyo.
The team details, including events each
cyclist will ride, are as follows:
- Team pursuit: Alice Sharpe, Lara Gillespie, Mia Griffin, Kelly Murphy
- Men’s Madison: Mark Downey & Felix English
- Women’s Madison: Lydia Gurley & Lydia Boylan
- Women’s Scratch Race: Lydia Gurley
- Men’s Scratch Race: Felix English
- Women’s Omnium: Lydia Boylan
- Men’s Points Race: Mark Downey
- Women’s Individual Pursuit: Kelly Murphy
- Women’s Points Race: Alice Sharpe
The riders have already had a busy
season as they have raced World Cup meetings all over the world, travelling to
World Cup events in Belarus, Glasgow, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and
Canada and the European Championships in the Netherlands.
Felix English won gold in Glasgow, Shannon McCurley silver in the Netherlands, Lydia Gurley silver in New Zealand and Emily Kay bronze in Canada, though neither McCurley nor Kay are in the Worlds team.
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