Irish cycling Olympic plans boosted
Mark Downey’s and Felix English’s hopes of getting to the Olympic Games, and even taking a medal, have received a huge boost.
The madison event in which they have been so successful has been returned to the schedule.
The decision was made at the International Olympic Council executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, yesterday.
It was also decided that BMX freestyle would be added to the Olympics.
The fact the madison will be an event in Tokyo will also be welcomed by other Irish track riders.
Lydia Boylan and Lydia Gurley have just begun to ride the event together. They competed in the madison at the World Championships earlier this year.
The event was included in the Worlds programme in preparation for it being added to the Olympics.
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And while Boylan and Gurley do not have the Irish mens pairing's pedigree yet, the fact they will now have the Olympics to aim for adds real purpose for the Irish men and women.
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Both Downey and English would fancy their chances of qualifying for Tokyo in other events, even if the madison had not just been added.
However, its inclusion is a massive boost to those Olympic goals and possibly taking something away from the Games.
The move may also force Sport Ireland to reconsider their decision to fund neither Downey nor English this year.
It appears that lack of funding arose from the fact their successes came at the UCI World Cup meetings rather than major championships.
Former madison world champion David Muntaner is now working as a coach with Cycling Ireland.
And having guided Downey and Felix to considerable success to date, they will all feel more progress can be made.
The two riders only paired up last year and English is not that long back on the track having been a road pro in the UK for several years.
With another couple of seasons under their belts, all under the eye of Muntaner, they can be a much more threatening proposition in time.
They already have a UCI World Cup win to their names, of course.
The pair took silver in the madison at the World Cup in Cali on February. And at the World Cup in Los Angeles two weeks later they won gold.
Downey had already taken gold in the points race at the Apeldoorn World Cup last November and claimed points gold again in Cali to add to his madison gold from that same meeting in Colombia.
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