Ireland's team pursuiters began their campaign at the UCI Nations Cup in Hong Kong this morning within touching distance of qualifying for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
The four riders - Kelly Murphy, Alice Sharpe, Mia Griffin and Lara Gillespie - knew that a big performance on the boards in Hong Kong would seal their places in Paris, and they absolutely nailed it.
Having enjoyed a prolonged period of training together in Brisbane since the Adelaide round of the Nations Cup last month, the foursome today took their best result for over a year, and broke their own national record.
They were second fastest in qualifying and now go into the gold medal ride-off, against New Zealand, later on Friday morning. In qualifying early this morning they relegated Australia to 3rd place, with Japan in 4th of the nine competing nations.
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The Irish women clocked a time of 4:20.503, some 2.605 down on the Kiwis and more than two seconds faster than Australia.
Their time was some way off their national record of 4:16.877 set in Jakarta just over a year ago. However, when they progressed to the first round of the competition this morning, and raced against Australia on the track, they went faster, clocking a time of 4:15.697.
That lowered their national record by over a second, putting them into the gold medal ride against New Zealand.
More to follow.
