Having been on the Irish elite team when he was in his 20s and broken Irish records back then, Kieran Leahy has now claimed a world record in the flying 200 metres in the 35-39 years category.
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Irish rider Kieran Leahy has set a new masters world record in the flying 200 metres at altitude in Mexico.
Leahy, a former member of Newcastle West Cycling Club in Limerick and now based in the US, is a former member of the elite Irish national team.
Leahy last night Irish time clocked a time of 10.24, some four one hundredths of a second faster than the previous marker.
He is in Aguascalientes, Mexico, among a group of riders who have gone there specifically to attempt to set new world records.
The UCI has appointed officials to oversee the riders’ record attempts meaning Leahy’s new world record in the 35-39 years category should be ratified quickly.
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He rode for Ireland on the track between 2006 and 2008 before retiring from competition to start work.
It is the second time in six months the 37-year-old has hit the headlines; claiming silver at the masters Worlds in the team sprint last October.
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Kieran Leahy back in 2007 when he broke the Irish record in Moscow; the first Irish rider to go under 11 seconds.
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Leahy won the Irish elite men’s sprint titles in 2006 and 2007. Notably, he broke the Irish national record for the flying 200m and flying 500m in 2007 in Moscow.
In doing so, he was the first Irish rider under 11 seconds for the flying 200 (10.597). That set a precedent for Eoin Mullen and other younger riders to follow.
Kieran Leahy began riding again in 2011 and the following year moved to New York City for a job at a corporate investigations company.
He began racing more on the track in the US and won the New York State championships in 2013 and 2015.
He continued to travel to Ireland for the team sprint and keirin national championships every August during that time, winning silver in both in 2015.
In 2016, however, he suffered a nasty accident at Sundrive track in Dublin on the eve of the nationals when he broke his collarbone.
But he returned to Sundrive to win the team sprint with Liam Collins and Eamonn Byrne in 2017.
Having turned 35 years in 2017 he became eligible for the Masters World Championships and last year claimed silver in the team sprint in a mixed nationality line-up.
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