Ireland’s Mullen faces Hoy and other top sprinters on London World Cup debut

Eoin Mullen is making his World Cup debut in the powerhouse events in London

A three-rider Irish team has been named for the final pre-Olympic World Cup track meeting which takes place in just over one week in London.

Martyn Irvine, Caroline Ryan and Eoin Mullen will all be action for Ireland on the London Olympic Velodrome, bringing a mix of youth and experience to the Irish team for the event.

First year senior Mullen is making his debut at this level and will face down powerhouse sprinters such as Britain’s Chris Hoy.

For Martyn Irvine, the meeting will be about trying to all but finish his Olympic qualification mission.

Irvine is currently Ireland’s best track rider by some way, having forced himself into the Olympic qualification places with his performances internationally over the past six months.

He now needs another good ride in the omnium in London next weekend to score the points needed to maintain or improve his position inside the top eight in the European rankings; the position he will need if he is to qualify for the Olympics.

After the fast approaching London World Cup, the last event that counts for Olympic qualification is the World Track Championships in Melbourne in April.

While Irvine may be well on his way to the 2012 Olympics, the fortunes of Caroline Ryan - the only woman on the team for London next weekend - have been more mixed in recent months.

She was part of the Irish team pursuit line-up that abandoned its slim hopes of qualifying for the Olympics after a false start and then a puncture saw them disqualified from the World Cup in Astana, Kazakhstan, in November.

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However, Ryan has since regrouped and has enjoyed an extended stint training abroad in recent months, including altitude training with the Triathlon Ireland Olympic squad.

She will ride the individual pursuit at the London World Cup, having finished 7^th in the same event at the World Cup in Cali, Colombia, in December.

That impressive ride in Cali qualified Ryan for the individual pursuit at the World Championships in Australia, with the London World Cup meeting an ideal arena to assess her form and develop further at this level.

Eoin Mullen will be making his World Cup debut in London, but nonetheless will be taking in three events; the sprint, keirin and kilo.

The teenager is the national sprint record holder and is based in Switzerland.

He will be thrown in at the deep end in London, riding the powerhouse events and going head to head against the best of the British in what is their last home meeting before the Olympics there in the summer.