Sinead Jennings leads Caroline Ryan and Ciara Horne in Apeldoorn
The Irish Team Pursuit squad believe their seventh place at the European Track Championships in Holland bodes well for their goal of qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics.
The trio of Sinead Jennings, Ciara Horne and Caroline Ryan, finished seventh of 12 nations in the team pursuit in Apeldoorn, Holland. They will need to be in the top six ranked nations in Europe by next April to grab an Olympic place.
Coach Brian Nugent says he thinks the women can do it.
“What you’d have to say is that they’ve absolutely put themselves in the frame,” he told stickybottle of the Irish trio.
“They are certainly in a very good position now to put up a realistic and strong challenge for an Olympic place. Obviously there are a lot of good teams out there, a lot of them will be gunning for the same places and some good nations won’t make it.”
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“But we’re in with a very good chance now; anything can happen.”
Ireland’s time of 3:32:821 in the qualifiers was over two seconds slower than their personal best. However, the track at Apeldoorn is widely regarded as being a slow one so the squad was not too concerned at being some distance off their PB.
They went into the weekend hoping to finish between 5th and 8th. Nugent says their 6th place shows they are strong enough relative to the other European nations to blast their way into the top six ranked countries in Europe.
If they are in the European top six after the World Championships in Melbourne next April, they are guaranteed a place at the Olympics.
“They definitely have the speed now,” said Nugent, “it’s just a case of working on the technique more, getting everything a bit tighter.”
He said it was the first time the three women had competed internationally together; with Sinead Jennings having taken a year our last year when she gave birth. On her return she teamed up with Horne and Ryan and while they have trained together for some time, the Euros was their first competitive outing.
Women - Team Pursuit qualifying
1 Great Britain 3:22.414
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2 Germany 3:26.778
3 Belarus 3:26.864
4 Ukraine 3:28.763
5 Netherlands 3:30.495
6 Belgium 3:31.988
7 Ireland 3:32.821
8 Poland 3:33.030
9 Lithuania 3:33.726
10 Spain 3:36.474
11 Russian Federation 3:36.607
12 Italy 3:37.400
(Great Britain took gold in the final, relegating Germany to silver. In the race for bronze it was Belarus that took the medal thanks to a DNF for the Ukraine.)
Sinead Jennings puts it on the line, leading Caroline Ryan and Ciara Horne
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