Irvine’s Olympic bid moving in the right direction. (Photo: Fred Draisma/www.fwd-photo.nl)
Ireland’s Martyn Irvine has put in a very good ride at the latest World Cup track meeting in Cali, Colombia, finishing fifth overall in the omnium.
The 26-year-old has clearly put behind him the disqualification he suffered at the last World Cup in Astana to bag some important Olympic qualification points.
Irvine needs to move into the top eight in the European omnium rankings to secure a place for Ireland in that event at the London Olympics.
Going into the Cali meeting he was eleventh, and while the official rankings after that meeting have yet to come out, stickybottle calculates the 2011 An Post Ras stage winner will have nudged up at least one place in the rankings, possibly two.
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Irvine was sixth in the omnium after the first three events were completed on Thursday in Cali. He managed to climb one place higher yesterday to fifth, after taking eight in the individual pursuit, seventh in the scratch race and eight in the 1km TT.
Irvine now has three events left to try and improve his position in the rankings and book his berth for London; the World Cups in Beijing and London next year and the World Championships in Australia in April.
While it will be very hard to get into the top eight in Europe and stay there, he has made good progress in recent months and an Olympic place is now definitely within his grasp.
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He would perhaps already be in the top eight had he not been disqualified from the omnium in Astana last month, when he failed to withdraw from the elimination race as fast as the judges would have liked.
Men's Omnium (Thursday & Friday)
Flying Lap
1. Bryan Coquard (France) 13.1 secs
2. Zach Ball (Canada) 13.2 secs
3. Shane Archbold (New Zealand) 13.2 secs
7. Martyn Irvine (Ireland) 13.4 secs
Points Race
1. Ho Ting Kwok (Hong Kong) 64 points
2. Eloy Teruel Rovira (Spain) 56 points
3. Lasse Norman Hensen (Denmark) 52 points
9. Martyn Irvine (Ireland) 32 points
Elimination race
1. Bryan Coquard (France)
2. Michael Freiberg (Australia)
3. Gijs Van Hoecke (Colombia)
14. Martyn Irvine (Ireland)
Individual pursuit
1. Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia) 4 minutes 23.752 secs
2. Carlos Linarez (Venezuela) 4 minutes 25.848 secs
3. Ho Sung Cho (Korea) 4 minutes 26.081 secs
8. Martyn Irvine (Ireland) 4 minutes 29.382 secs
Scratch race
1. Walter Fernando Perez (Argentina)
2. Gijs Van Hoecke (Belgium)
3. Ho Ting Kwok (Hong Kong)
7. Martyn Irvine (Ireland) at 1 lap
1km TT
1. Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia) 1 minute 2.685 secs
2. Bryan Coquard (France) 1 minute 2.706
3. Zach Bell (Canada) 1 minute 3.805
8. Martyn Irvine (Ireland) 1 minute 4.205
Final overall
1. Juan Esteban Arango (Colombia) 28 points
2. Zach Bell (Canada) 33
3. Bryan Coquard (France) 34
5. Martyn Irvine (Ireland) 52
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