Cycling Ireland says while it wanted more than one track cyclist in Rio it does not believe plans for a velodrome in Dublin have been adversely impacted. Above, coach Brian Nugent with Martyn Irvine, whose retirement was a major blow to Irish track cycling according to Nugent (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
By Brian Canty
Cycling Ireland technical director Brian Nugent has said he had hoped more Irish track riders would make the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this year but that qualifying just one is still something to be proud of.
He added that despite significant funding from various bodies, having just one rider qualify will not negatively impact plans for a velodrome.
Shannon McCurley is Ireland's sole representative on the track in Rio.
Having qualified a place in the keirin, she made history by becoming the first Irish female cyclist to ever qualify for the Olympics.
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“Our target with the Sports Councils was for two or three on the road and two on the track,” he said.
Blazing a trail for Ireland, for Irish track cycling and Irish women; Shannon McCurley is on the cusp of realising her Olympic dream.
“With Martyn Irvine’s crash last year in the World Cup he lost half his season and that was a major blow.
“The (female) team pursuit was always a long-term goal and the Sports Councils are fully supportive of that, but we went for it and committed to it, otherwise you don't make progress.
“We fell short of our target but there is still a good opportunity in BMX through Kelvin Batey.
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Nugent added: “When we started the project we expected Martyn to go to Rio, so his crash and subsequent retirement was massive.
“That was one of our targets and we missed out on that. But a lot of unfortunate circumstances led to the point where we just had one qualified.
“Martyn broke his collar bone in one of the key races, missed the next two subsequent races, so he missed one third of the qualifying process and it became impossible to qualify. We know he retired as a result.
Nugent said while the women's pursuit team made great progress, it was always a tall order expecting them to qualify (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
“We did expect one male and one female on the track; we really wanted to push the (female) team pursuit as far as we could go but it wasn’t realistic to expect them to qualify in year one.
“We did qualify a rider with limited resources and this just shows we need a velodrome more and more.
“Look how close we can get with 18 months having to work out of the country?
“Imagine if we could just focus our efforts in Dublin and work there day in and day out?
“The amount of talent you could uncover, even the participation aspect, the number would grow so much.
“And when you get down to picking your team you’d have a greater volume of people to choose from who have more experience and that feeds into creating a culture of track cycling.
“The velodrome, for me, looks more appealing now more than ever.”
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