Two warriors for Ireland for years; Mark Downey and Felix English today achieved what very few athletes any sport do - qualified for the Olympic Games.
Immediately the Madison was included in the Olympic programme the standard in the event ramped up but now English and Downey are on their way to Tokyo.
They have enjoyed success before of course; Downey and English winning World Cup gold in this event, in Los Angeles in 2017, and securing individual medals also.
Most recently English, a former top pro criterium rider
on the UK scene, won scratch race gold at the UCI World Cup in Glasgow last
November.
And Downey took a bronze medal on the points race at the World Track Championships last year in Poland.
But today it was all about their madison race at the
Worlds in Berlin; their ability to qualify for the Olympics coming down to this
one last year.
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They were in a dog fight with Portugal and Hong Kong and the 11th place scored by the Irish pair was enough to get them over the line after the Hong Kong riders failed to finish the Portuguese finished in 14th.
However, in the early stages of the race both those rival
nations scored points, meaning English and Downey were really up against it.
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Just to give themselves – and their coaches and supporters in Berlin – a little more to worry about, Downey rubbed a wheel and was forced to call on all his bike handling skills to keep himself upright.
They picked up three points in the third last sprint and, such was the competition for the last places in the Olympic madison, that was enough for them to win out; jumping the UCI rankings by just enough to make it to the Games.
“I’m absolutely over the moon,” said Mark Downey, whose father Seamus Downey is an Olympian and whose brother Sean Downey is a Commonwealth Games medal winner and former road pro.
“It’s been a long process for two years now and I think we needed 101 things to go our way today.
“We woke up this morning and the two of us were so nervous because we knew we just couldn’t make one mistake and it just goes to show…
“Yeah, we’ve had our backs up against the wall for nearly a year and a half and we’ve done it in the last (race) so that’s pretty special.”
Felix English echoed those sentiments saying of his and Downey’s qualification ride: “It was just mad.”
He added: “We knew everyone, especially those top five teams, were just going to be untouchable essentially.
“And then we had two teams we needed to look at which was Hong Kong and Portugal. We needed to put five spots into Hong Kong, and we needed to just beat Portugal in the race.”
- We’ll have more later from the Irish at the Worlds, including more on the Lydias; Gurley and Boylan also on their way to Tokyo.
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