Photo: Fred Draisma www.fwd-photo.nl
Ireland’s Martyn Irvine is looking good to climb into the Olympic qualification places in the omnium, following a day at the Beijing World Cup when he rode well and two of his main rivals faltered.
Irvine is 10th in the overall standings after the first three events; with three more to follow tomorrow, Saturday.
However, the big news of the day for the Irish Olympic hopeful was the failure of Polish rider Mateusz Nowak to make it past the qualification rounds.
Irvine needs to be ranked at least 8th in the omnium in Europe by April in order to qualify for London 2012. At present he’s lying 9th, with Poland just ahead of him.
The elimination of Poland in Beijing means Irvine will now gain ground on them.
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While the Irishman would not wish to capitalise on the misfortunate of others, it’s a bit of luck he will take; particularly following his disqualification from the Astana World Cup meeting last year.
Denmark, who were just behind Ireland in the EU rankings going into the Beijing meeting, were also eliminated today.
It means Irvine can really put daylight between both of his closest rivals by scoring further points tomorrow.
Irvine began today’s racing in great style, finishing second in his qualifying heat. The Irishman was one of five riders to gain a lap on the other ten in the race.
He was then 11th in the flying lap on a time of 13.631 seconds, less than four tenths of a second off winner Bryan Coquard of France.
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In the next event, the points race, Irvine was again in great form, mixing it with the best and was one of four riders to gain a lap on the rest of the 24-man field.
He finished third in that event, taking his first points by placing second in sprint six.
He then went on to score again by winning the eleventh sprint, before notching up more points with fifth in the twelfth sprint and then crossing the line first at the finish.
The points race was won by Glen O’Shea of the USA, with 38 points, followed by Kenny De Ketele from Belgium, on 29 points, with Irvine just one point off him in third.
The performance left him fifth overall after two events.
In the third and final event of the day, the elimination race, Irvine found the going a little tougher; finishing 14th of the 24 riders.
However, it was in this event in Astana last year that he was disqualified for not getting off the track fast enough when he was eliminated so he will be at least happy to have avoided that banana skin this time around.
He now has the individual pursuit, scratch race and time trial to negotiate tomorrow to bag some more vital Olympic qualification points.
We’ll keep you posted.
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