Having qualified just one rider on the track at the last two Olympics, there are hopes Ireland can do better for the 2020 Games. Cycling Ireland technical director Brian Nugent, above with Shannon McCurley in Rio, says the Irish team is improving and edging towards qualification.
Several Irish track cyclists looking to reach Tokyo Olympics
Cycling Ireland technical director, Brian Nugent, believes the Irish track team is improving and is edging towards Olympic qualification.
Nugent said the women's and men's madisons as well as the women’s keirin and sprint were Ireland's focus at present for Tokyo Olympic qualification.
He was speaking after Felix English scored Ireland’s best result in the UCI World Cup over the weekend with 4th in the scratch race in Ontario.
Marc Potts was 12th in the men’s omnium and Lydia Boylan 10th in the women’s event. Robyn Stewart was 12th in the keirin.
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Lydia Gurley placed 19th in the scratch race. Potts and English were 11th in the men’s madison, while Gurley and Boylan were 10th in the women’s race.
Ireland only qualified one rider on the track for Rio 2016; Australian-based Shannon McCurley in the keirin.
Brian Nugent and the Cycling Ireland high performance unit are aiming to do better this time around.
Indeed, they are under pressure to get more berths in Tokyo than the Irish did in Rio or London before it.
While McCurley was the only Irish track cyclist in Brazil, Martyn Irvine was Ireland's sole representative in London 2012.
The Irish team has already competed in two of the six UCI World Cups this season. And the best three results from the series count towards Olympic 2020 qualification.
Since the last Games, the madison has been added as an Olympic event. And that has brought added opportunity for Ireland.
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Mark Downey and Felix English claimed madison World Cup gold last year. And Lydia Gurley and Lydia Boylan won madison silver at the Europeans last season.
That success by Ireland means hopes are high we can qualify for both the men’s and women’s madisons in Tokyo.
Cycling Ireland’s Brian Nugent said the riders were edging towards qualification having already scored points.
He was happy the Irish team’s performances were better in Canada at the weekend than at the World Cup season-opener in Paris the previous week.
“We were focussing mainly on the madison for the men and women, and the women’s sprint and keirin,” Nugent said of the Canada World Cup.
“They are the Olympic events at Tokyo 2020. So our main focus was to get Olympic points for them, which we did. And, importantly, we got them outside Europe.
"The madison is a new event in the Olympics for the women’s team. And that is starting to take a bit of shape now.
“We’re where we need to be, and it’s good to see. There is a bit of work to be done in the men’s madison, but we know what we have to do."
Robyn Stewart is a new rider on the scene since the last Olympic cycle. She is competing in the women’s sprint and keirin for Ireland and is tipped to make it to the Olympics.
At the weekend she did well to progress to the second round of the keirin but was disappointed with her sprint event ride.
“It feels like a blur now. I attacked early and one girl came round me in the end,” she said of the keirin.
“And then I managed to hold off the Japanese girl literally by a hair on the line. So I was pretty happy to go through without having to through the repechages.
"I guess I’m getting faster with each race. And that means I can compete a bit more in the keirin than I can in the sprint.
“The girls I just raced in the minor final were all two or three tenths of a second quicker than me in the sprint yesterday. So I was the slower rider.
“But in the Keirin that doesn’t always matter as much. I went a bit early and used up all my energy, but it was good.
“I’ve only been riding the bike for about three and a half years, so I’m trying to catch up, but I can see myself getting there."
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