The Irish team pursuiters have taken well over a second off their own national record at the UCI Nations Cup in Glasgow but have missed the medal ride-offs despite the strength of their performance.
Kelly Murphy, Mia Griffin, Emily Kay and Alice Sharpe recorded a time of 4:24.334 in qualifying on Thursday morning, which was 5th fastest of the 13 teams in the competition.
The Irish women were 8.238 seconds down on the Germans, who were fastest in a time of 4:16.096. The Italians were next at 0.269 followed by the British (+1.635) and the France (+3.582), followed by the Irish and then the Netherlands (+9.917), the United States (+10.470) and Poland (+11.041).
Related News
That result meant the top eight went forward to the first round, where the Irish women faced Poland and beat them with the new Irish record time of 4:19.738, which shattered their own previous best of 4:21.126.
Advertisement
However, as Ireland were not among the four fastest nations in that first round, they did not progress to the medal ride offs. Instead the Irish were fifth fastest again.
The Germans were quickest, followed by Great Britain, and they were due to meet late on Thursday in the gold-silver ride-off. France and Italy were 3rd and 4th fastest, meaning they have advanced to the bronze medal ride-off.
While the Irish will be disappointed not to go further in the competition, the top four nations were significantly faster than the rest of the field and the Irish women have the consolation of having done their best time - by a huge margin - in their first major competitive outing of the year.
First round results...
