Irish track international Kelly Murphy has won the gold medal in the elite women’s individual pursuit at the National Track Championships in Dublin this afternoon while Michael O’Loughlin (EvoPro Racing) won the men’s title.
Team Rupelcleaning rider, Murphy, came up against national omnium champion Gaby Homer (also Team Rupelcleaning) in the gold-medal ride-off after those two were 1st and 2nd in qualifying earlier in the day.
Murphy clocked 3.45.78 ion qualifying, which was a new national outdoor
record for the 3km event; beating her own record of 3.47.45.
And when Murphy and Homer went head-to-head in that gold-silver decided, Murphy went event faster. Her time of 3.44.05 was close to two seconds faster than the time she had set in the morning, breaking the national outdoor record for a second time and almost catching Homer in the final.
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In the bronze medal ride-off, Caoimhe O’Brien (Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar) went up against Jennifer Neenan (UVCA Troyes), with O'Brien coming out best.
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In the men’s 4k individual pursuit, Carrick-on-Suir’s
Michael O’Loughlin came back again to defend the crown he won last year and
those efforts prove successful.
Now riding for the EvoPro Racing UCI Continental team, O’Loughlin was fastest in qualifying, with a time of 4:43.28. His team mate Conn McDunphy, the national TT champion, next fastest with 4:50.36.
That set up a clash of the team mates in the gold-silver
ride-off while Cian Keogh (Spellman Dublin Port), who was 3rd fastest in
qualifying, went up against one of the breakthrough riders of the summer, Sean
Lenehan (Navan Road Club).
The bronze medal ride was up first, with Keogh repeating
the bronze medal he claimed 12 months ago; overcoming Lenehan this afternoon
despite the Navan rider going out hard early and being ahead for much of the
4km.
In the final, O’Loughlin was the favourite but McDunphy went out very hard and got well ahead, before O'Loughlin simply overpowered him.
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