Ryan Henderson has lined up the biggest day of his BMX career in the freestyle final at the European Championships in Munich tomorrow after a great debut at this level.
The east Belfast rider went in the heats of the competition yesterday and placed 11th of the 29-rider field. Henderson recorded scores of 66 and 66.04 for an average of 66.02. He said he was delighted with his performance, though would make some tweaks to his approach for Saturday.
“I’m absolutely stoked, I can’t believe it," he said. "I had two good runs, although my first one kind of got a bit weird and I went a bit off course, but we stayed on. Sitting in 11th place going into the final, that’s amazing, I’m so stoked.”
However, while obviously very happy with his performance, he said there was room to improve before tomorrow's final.
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“We’ll do small changes because we can take a bit of a risk since there’s just one round that counts. We’ll feel it out tomorrow and come Saturday we’ll see what we can do," he said.
Meanwhile, in the team pursuit the Irish women will face Poland on today, Friday, after finishing 6th in qualifying yesterday. The team was comprised of Emily Kay, Alice Sharpe, Kelly Murphy and Mia Griffin. However, with Kay set to ride the points race in Munich today, she will be replaced in the line-up by Lara Gillespie.
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The Enniskerry rider is making a comeback this season after a year blighted by illness and injury since winning silver in the U23 individual pursuit at the European Track Championships in the Netherlands exactly 12 months ago.
Gillespie has already raced in the national colours since her return to competition, taking two 5th places in the U23 Europeans in Portugal last month.
While the elite Irish team is in action in the Europeans in Germany, Ireland's paracycling big guns will be in action at the Worlds in Canada today. Paralympic gold medallists Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal line out in the TT, firmly fixed on more gold medals.
Josephine Healion and her pilot Linda Kelly - who won silver behind their team mates in the TT and road race at last week's UCI World Cup in Canada, will also be in action for Ireland today. European silver medallist Ronan Grimes and the new tandem pairing of Damien Vereker and Dillon Corkery also go in the TTs in Canada today.
