Martyn Irvine waves goodbye to the UCI track world championships crowd having bagged a silver medal in the scratch race and finishing sixth in today's points race.
By Gerard Cromwell
Having taken a silver medal in yesterday’s scratch race, Martyn Irvine bowed out of this year’s world track championships with another gutsy performance, taking sixth place in the 160 lap men’s points race in the early hour of this morning.
Irvine bided his time in the early laps of the race as Belgian Kenney De Ketele took the five points on offer for winning the first of 16 sprints ahead of Kiwi Tom Scully, Spaniard Eloy Teruel and Frenchman Vivien Brisse.
Teruel attacked a lap early in an effort to gain another five points on lap 20 but was pipped to the line by Dane Lasse Norman Hansen while a four man group went clear a lap later and began to open a gap on the peloton.
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With 136 laps to go, the home crowd went wild as the lead quartet were joined by home favourite Edwin Avila and Russian Ivan Savitchi. Ten laps later, this sextet had gained a lap and 20 points each with German Theo Reinhardt going into the lead ahead of Kiwi Tom Scully and Teruel.
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With 115 laps to go Irvine soloed clear of the field to take maximum points in the next sprint but he was soon swallowed up by a five man move and eventually the peloton
Teruel, Scully and Deketele then went clear with the Kiwi leaving the other two to take the next sprint, gain a lap and put himself into the gold medal position before Avila clawed his way back into the lead in the next sprint.
With fresh legs few and far between, a crash at the back saw De Ketele, Britain’s Owain Doull and Nolan Hoffman of South Africa hit the deck while Hong Kong’s King Lok Cheung went clear off the front to take the next two sprints and with 37 laps to go, Cheung was within 10m of gaining a lap.
Behind, Irvine launched another move, catching Cheung and leading him over the line to take five points with 35 laps to go. The duo continued on with Irvine also taking the next sprint and gaining a lap to move into fifth place overall on the leaderboard.
A surge from behind by Teruel saw him almost catch the duo and the Spaniard gained a second lap while Avila sent Colombian pulses racing again when he followed suit in a little group with 15 laps to go to put himself level at the top.
Scully hit the front in an effort to snatch the lead but Avila took fourth and a single point in the next sprint to stay in front as a tiring Irvine dropped to sixth overall.
Irvine was quickly marked when he attacked with nine laps to go but with just six laps left managed to break free one more time. He was however caught and passed on the last bend where Avila managed to score a single point for fourth in the final sprint of the night and was duly crowned world champion on his home track, winning by four points from Scully, with Teruel third, eight points further back.
Irvine rounded out a great world championships by the little Irish team with sixth place on the night.
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