Martyn Irvine has put in a great performance on the first day of the men’s omnium at the World Cup meeting in Cali, Colombia, to leave himself in sixth place at the midway point after three races.
The Team Ireland rider, who is chasing vital Olympic qualifying points, signalled his intent in the qualifying rounds, finishing third in the first of two heats in a field of seventeen.
The Irish triple national track champion netted 41 points, just two off winner Lasse Norman Hansen of Denmark.
That moved the Irishman into the competition proper with ease, with the first of the six omnium events down for the decision being the flying lap.
Irvine continued his strong showing in that race, placing equal sixth of the 24-man field.
His time of 13.40 seconds was just 0.3secs off winner Bryan Coquard of France.
In the points race that followed, Irvine was very squarely in the mix amassing 32 points to finish 9th in what was a hard fought contest.
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The Irishman managed to grab two points in the opening sprint. Later he gained a lap with a rider from Hong Kong and won two of the twelve sprints, including the last one of the event.
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Irvine then went on to finish 14th of the 24-man field in the elimination race, the event from which he was disqualified at the last World Cup meeting in Astana.
Again, in Cali yesterday the judges gave riders little leeway in pulling out quickly enough when eliminated, with three riders disqualified.
One of those was New Zealand sprinter Shane Archbold, who performed so well in the An Post Ras in Ireland back in May and is a world track championships silver medallist.
Irvine’s sixth place overall, if he can hold it or move even higher over the remainder of the event, will secure for him vital London 2012 qualification points. He is currently just outside the top eight ranking in Europe and must get into that top eight by next April of he is to qualify for London.
With riders from outside the EU likely to bag many points in Cali, the Northern Irishman is now in a great position to make serious inroads into the European rankings if he can hold his form for the remaining events tonight, Irish time.
We’ll have more on Irvine’s progress later and also updates on Ciara Horne and Caroline Ryan, who are also riding in Cali this weekend. Both riders are taking in the individual pursuit.
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