Having gotten Ireland’s track cycling campaign underway at the Olympic Games today, Mark Downey said he felt he had banked vital experience in the race.
He placed 17th in the omnium, ahead of racing in the madison with Felix English, the event they qualified for.
It was Downey’s first omnium at international level and when asked by the media about qualifying for the Games with no velodrome in Ireland he replied he felt it was time for Ireland to get its own velodrome.
“I was chatting with Martyn (Irvine), the coach, and he was saying all these guys can drop in, after doing some road, when they are at home and do 10 days on the track here, 10 days there, whereas I have to fly to Mallorca every time to drop in and do a track session,” Downey said.
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“So it’s just a great inconvenience. We’re doing the best
we can, getting here without a velodrome. I think if you told an athletics team
to try and qualify with no track back home they’d look at you.
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“So I think we’re punching above our weight, we’re throwing the kitchen sink at it. But I think it’s about time we have a velodrome at home.”
He also said the challenges posed by the pandemic had
also been difficult, but ultimately it was a great honour to race for Ireland
at the Olympic Games.
“It’s been an up and down road, obviously, in the last year we’ve had it’s been a bit of a struggle so it was nice to get the opportunity to be here,” he said, adding he enjoyed his first race at the Games today.
“I haven’t raced in a while so I knew I was going to be a
bit rusty. So the plan was to go out and see how the first two races were and
if it wasn’t going too hot we’d sort of shift our focus to the madison in the
next few days.
“I’d never rode an omnium at Europeans or a World Cup so
to ride your first proper omnium at an Olympics is pretty special. It’s obviously
a great opportunity but I’m an athlete, I like to compete… 17th, it’s
not a brilliant result.
“But for me this cycle was (about) getting that box
ticked to come here. Hopefully the next cycle we can come back here and achieve
some good results.”
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