Ireland ride fastest World Champs qualifying but fail to advance

*The Irish team pursuit line-up - Emily Kay, Kelly Murphy, Lara Gillespie and Alice Sharpe - just failed to advance to the next round at the Worlds in Paris*

The Irish team pursuit line-up has ridden its fastest ever time in qualifying at a World Track Championships but has just failed to advance to the next round in Paris today.

While Ireland's time of 4:19.934 was the fastest, by some margin, for the 4km distance in any of the Worlds qualifying rounds the team has ridden, it was only enough for 9th place today. And with the top eight teams advancing to the next round, the Irish team goes no further in the competition.

Ireland finished 4^th in qualifying in the Worlds, also in Paris, last year, though in a smaller field and in a much slower time of 4:23.095. In 2020 Ireland finished 8^th in qualifying, in a time of 4:22.368. In 2019, which was the first Worlds for the current team pursuit line-up, they were 9^th in qualifying in a time of 4:29.148.

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The Irish team - Alice Sharpe, Emily Kay, Lara Gillespie and Kelly Murphy - were ranked 5th in the world going into these World Championships. They were aiming for a top eight place today in order to advance to the next round and also because eight teams qualify for the Olympics.

While there is a long way to go to the Olympics - and these Worlds are not part of the qualification process - the Irish women will need to be able to beat some of the teams who finished ahead of them today in order to get to Paris and a top eight result would have been a boost.

On the up side, the Irish women were just eight tenths of a second away from finishing 8th and their time today was slower than their national record - 4:19.738 set in April of this year - meaning they are capable of more.

The Italians were fastest today in a time of 4:11.011 with Great Britain next in 4:13.117 followed by France, who rode 4:13.425. Next were: Australia (4:15.173), Germany (4:16.898), Netherlands (4:17.770), Canada (4:18.877), United States Of America (4:19.119) followed by Ireland in 4:19.934.