Magnificent Josie Knight provides silver lining on mixed day for Irish at Euro Champs

Great Bit of Stuff: Josie Knight on the podium in Portugal; her silver medal at the Euros ushering her onto the world stage.

Ireland’s Josie Knight has won a silver medal in the junior women’s individual pursuit at the European Track Championships in Portugal.

The Kanturk CC first-year junior had put in a stunning ride earlier to record the quickest time in the qualifiers.

However, when it came to the head-to-head ride off this evening, the Russian who was second fastest in qualifying this morning got the better of the Irish rider.

Daria Egorova clocked a time of 2mins 28.940secs in the 2km effort, against Knight’s 2mins 29.669secs.

The Russian had clearly gone into this evening’s encounter on Anadia, Portugal, with the intention of starting fast and then keeping the head down in trying to hold off the Irish girl.

And that’s exactly what she did; clocking the quicker time through the early checks and holding off Knight, who was almost two tenths of a second slower than this morning when she shaved six seconds off the junior women’s national record.

However, the result is an amazing one for Knight who is competing at these championships for the first time and has never contested racing at this level, aside from the Youth Olympics last year as an U16 rider which is not really comparable.

Her medal was a silver lining to what was very much a mixed opening day of the championships for the Irish.

The Irish junior men's team pursuit riders prepare themselves for their effort in Portugal today under the watchful eye of coach Brian Nugent.

National senior road race champion and U23 time trial title holder, Ryan Mullen took the bronze medal in the Europeans last year in the pursuit and since then has ridden his first elite world championships and taken 4th place.

He has competed this year on the road for the An Post-Chainreaction team and having shown great form in taking the road and TT national titles just over three weeks ago, he was very much fancied to take a medal, perhaps a gold, in the U23 pursuit today.

However, his time of 4mins 26.481secs for the 4km event in qualifiers today was only 5th fastest, meaning he missed out on the bronze medal ride off – contest by the third and fourth fastest in qualifiers.

In truth, Mullen was well off the pace; his time nearly eight seconds slower than the new champion Stefan Kung, who rides for the BMC development team.

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The Swiss rider has had a huge couple of weeks. He was crowned U23 European road race champion the weekend before last and the week before that won both the road race and TT and the World University Championships

Ireland’s other rider in the U23 pursuit today, Dylan Foley was 23rd in a time of 4mins 38.946secs. However, he is a developing rider from whom much is hoped for in coming years.

The Irish team also had a team in the junior men’s pursuit today and they finished in 10th place. That line-up consisted of Mark Downey, Fintan Ryan, Sean Grimes and Declan Mulholland.

Tomorrow will see six more Irish riders competing, with the focus being on the men’s U23 team Pursuit, and the junior men’s individual pursuit.