Lydia Boylan and Lydia Gurley have qualified Ireland our first places at the Tokyo Olympics after finishing 11th in the madison at the World Track Championships in Berlin today, according to Cycling Ireland.
In a race littered with crashes, including a bad fall for Boylan, the Irish persevered and clocked more qualification points, as the Dutch took gold from France and Italy.
Cycling Ireland issued a statement saying: "Lydia Boylan and Lydia Gurley survived a brutal race in the World Championships women’s madison to finish 11th.
"The result has added to Ireland’s points tally throughout the qualification period and provisionally qualifies two slots in the women’s Madison and one slot in the women’s omnium at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics."
All of the Olympic qualification points tallies of all nations must be added after the Worlds, the last event where points can be scored, before the UCI can announce what nations have qualified for the various events.
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However, with Ireland chasing qualification in the men's and women's madisons, Cycling Ireland has done its own calculations and has announced the Irish madison pairing of Boylan and Gurley have done enough.
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It is a deserved reward for them as they have been dedicated and dogged competitors in recent years; Boylan opting away from her road racing career to focus on the track.
Just late last December Gurley won a bronze medal in the scratch race at the UCI World Cup in New Zealand.
Boylan claimed her biggest result with at last year's Worlds in Poland with a silver medal in the points race.
And riding the madison together at the European Championships, also in the German city of Berlin, back in 2017 they took a silver.
All eyes will now be on Felix English and Mark Downey in the men's madison tomorrow as they are also chasing qualification for Tokyo.
More to come.
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