By Shane Stokes
Barring something unexpected, Ireland’s team pursuit riders look set to achieve their goal of Olympic qualification, with their ranking jumping to an excellent sixth in the world.
The quartet of Kelly Murphy, Mia Griffin, Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie finished eighth in last Friday’s team pursuit race at the Adelaide round of the UCI Nations Cup, adding further points to their total.
It had previously finished a fine fourth in the European championships in January. All teams in the top ten of the ranking will be awarded a place in the Paris Olympics.
Ireland was sitting ninth in early January, slipped to tenth on January 16th, then jumped to seventh one week later. It remained in that position on January 30th, ahead of Canada, the United States, Poland, Japan and China.
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And while Canada’s fourth place last Friday, the fifth of the USA and the seventh of China saw those countries take more points than Ireland did from the Australian round, the country overtook an absent Germany to improve to sixth.
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It now has 6085 points, with Canada close behind on 6070, Germany on 5960, the USA on 5950 and Japan on 4850. China is just outside the top ten with 4510.
“Since Adelaide the team have moved up a place in the Olympic Team Pursuit rankings to sixth place, but we’re amongst a very tight cluster of teams who will all be aiming to score well in their remaining opportunities, just like ourselves,” Cycling Ireland’s high performance director Ian Dyer told stickybottle.
“All the European teams will be aware that with the Pan Am and Asian continental championships still to come there will be plenty of movement in the rankings in the coming months.
“However, we know if we perform well in Hong Kong next month we can put it to bed and focus our attention on preparing for Paris.”
Two Nations Cup rounds remain. The next is in Hong Kong between March 15 and 17, with the last in Milton, Canada, between April 12 and 14.
Just two out of the three rounds are used for points calculations, meaning that Ireland should not need to travel to Canada if Hong Kong goes to plan. Qualifying for the team pursuit will also secure the country a place in the madison in Paris.
