No strangers to success on the big days when the stakes are high, Conn McDunphy and Annalise Murphy have at the National Track Championships added further gold medals to their growing collections.
McDunphy (Team Skyline) was in great form on the road in Romania recently, including bagging another win in a UCI-ranked race, and used those long and hard racing miles to good effect over a much shorter distance in Dublin.
He claimed gold in the men's individual pursuit on the Sundrive Velodrome at Eamon Ceannt Park in Crumlin in a time of 4:41:50, beating team mate Cian Keogh in the gold-silver battle. Keogh recorded a time of 4:52:22 in the final ride to decide the destination of the 2024 title.
In the bronze medal ride-off, Sean Landers (UCD Cycling Club) went up against Sean Lenehan (Spellman Dublin Port). Landers got the better of Lenehan by 1.19 seconds; 4:54:32 Vs 4:55:51.
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In the women's pursuit, former Olympic sailing medalist Annalise Murphy (Longcourt Hotel-NCW Wheelers) was once again on top step of the podium at a Nationals.
She was fastest in qualifying - with 3:53:89 - and went up against her team mate, Ellen Ni Cleirigh, in the gold-silver ride, taking the title. Murphy stopped the clock at 3:51.80 in the final compared with Ni Cleirigh's 4:06.34.
To put Murphy's time in context, it was in line with what Mia Griffin and Lara Gillespie did at the championships in 2020 - recording 3.50.963 and 3.52.052 - though some days are faster than others on an outdoor velodrome, of course.
In the bronze medal ride-off, Jennifer Neenan (UCD Cycling Club) beat Jennifer Bates (Longcourt Hotel-NCW Wheelers); 4:15.09 Vs 4:19:83 after just nine one hundredths of a second separated them in qualifying.
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In the women's sprint, Deirbhle Ivory (Bray Wheelers) has been crowned Irish elite champion. She was faster in the flying 200 qualifying, in a time of 12.55. Caoimhe Seymour (Sundrive Track Team) was next, in 12.85, from Aimee Dickson (Palmer Park Velo RT) and Eimear Moran (Sundrive Track Team) on 13.64.
Ivory went on to beat Seymour 2-0 in the final to take the title while Dickson beat Moran 2-0 for the bronze medal.7
In the men's sprint, Harvey Barnes (East Tyrone CC) was fastest in qualifying, on 11.33, from Alexander Abdul-Wahab (Spellman Dublin Port), on 11.34. Eric Gasparro (Spellman Dublin Port) was 3rd in a time of 12:00 with Dmitro Griffin (Orwell Wheelers) 4th in 12.38.
In the final, Barnes went on to beat Abdul-Wahab 2-1 while Dmitro beat Griffin 2-0 in the bronze medal battle.
Women's 3km Individual Pursuit
Men's 4km Individual Pursuit
Women's Sprint
Men's Sprint
