Just 24 hours after Mia Griffin said the Irish team pursuit line-up was targeting a big gain soon rather than repeated incrementally faster times, Kelly Murphy has taken a personal best by a large margin.
Irish individual pursuit champion Murphy has been lowering the national record for the 3km event over the past two years and today she went considerably faster.
The new marker of 3:27.490 set today at the World Track Championships in Roubaix was just over two seconds faster than the 3:29.510 time Murphy set at the UCI World Cup in St Petersburg in July.
That ride in Russia during the summer secured not only a new Irish record for Murphy but also the gold medal in the event, with her team mate Griffin taking bronze that day.
Today the two Irish riders were 6th and 8th in the individual pursuit qualifying at the Worlds; Murphy missing the top four - and medal ride-offs - by just over one second.
Advertisement
Related News
The Germans filled the top three placings in qualifying of the 18-rider field. Lisa Brennauer was best, in 3:17.572, followed by Franziska Brausse at 4.720secs, with those two progressing to the gold-silver ride-off.
Mieke Kroeger was 3rd fastest, at 4.764secs, and the German now meets Alzini Martina in the bronze medal ride-off as the Italian was 4th fastest today at 8.756.
Murphy was 9.918 seconds off Brennauer and Griffin was two further places back in 8th at 17.141 seconds, clocking a time of 3:34.713. Those times were achieved just days after they rode the team pursuit at the Worlds.
Along with Alice Sharpe and Emily Kay, they set a new team pursuit national record of 4:21.126. That ride on Thursday in France was marginally faster than the 4:21.202 they set on their way to the bronze medal at the European Championships in Switzerland just over fortnight ago.
Also at the Worlds today, Sharpe lined out with Kay in the madison; the latter having ridden the event at the Olympics with Shannon McCurley, who crashed hard in Tokyo.
Sharpe and Kay are a new pairing in the madison event and they did not progess to the final today after they finished 10th, on two points, in the first of the two heats.
Individual pursuit qualifying
