Cycling Ireland's national track coach, Dan Henchy, believes the Irish team pursuit line-up is now closing the gap on the strongest nations in the world as it bids to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The team pursuit women lowered their own national record twice at the UCI Nations Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia; the third time they had broken the record in a matter of weeks. And in Jakarta, during one ride, they shaved more than two seconds off their previous best, a huge margin at this level.
At the meeting, Lara Gillespie, Alice Sharpe, Kelly Murphy and Mia Griffin made up the team pursuit line-up, with regular squad member Emily Kay missing the meeting through injury. Some of those riders were also in action in individual events while Orla Walsh was the sole sprinter competing for Ireland.
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Henchy was especially pleased with the team pursuit performance in Indonesia, where the team was 5th of 14 nations, and at the recent Europeans, where the Irish woman were also 5th and completed the first of their national record-breaking rides in just three weeks.
“It was important for the women’s team pursuit to start Olympic qualification strongly and 5th place at UEC European Championships was a solid result," said Henchy of the Europeans ride at the start of February in Grenchen, Switzerland.
"The first round of the UCI Tissot Track Nations Cup series in Jakarta was a quick turnaround, so to take a decent chunk of time off the national record and bag another 5th place is just the start we were planning for.
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"There’s still a lot of work to do over the next year to secure a spot in the Paris Games but the gap to the top nations is closing and we’re learning a lot and growing in confidence with every ride.”
Aside from the team pursuiters taking the best result for the Irish team in Jakarta, Griffin also competed in the elimination race and finished 15th in the 21-rider field.
In the sprint event, Orla Walsh finished 23rd of 43 riders in qualifying. As 28 riders qualified for the next round, Walsh went through to that, where she was beaten by Riyu Ohta of Japan and so went out of the competition.
Lara Gillespie and Alice Sharpe placed 9th in the Madison, in a 17-nation field. In the Keirin event, Walsh placed 5th of seven riders in the first round of the competition - consisting of six heats with seven riders in each heat.
With only the winner of each heat qualifying directly for the second round, Walsh went into the repechage - six heats of six riders. She was 2nd in her heat but only the winners went through to the second round meaning Walsh went out of the competition at that point.
In the omnium, Mia Griffin put in a very solid ride, placing 8th of the 24-rider field. Along the way she was 5th in the tempo race and gained a lap - and 20 points - in the points race, helping her overall tally.
