Ireland has won three medals, in a fantastic evening of racing for our female track riders, at the UCI World Cup in Russia, with Kelly Murphy, Mia Griffin and Lara Gillespie all on target.
Murphy and Griffin claimed gold and bronze respectively in the elite women’s individual pursuit in St Petersburg this evening after winning their medal ride-offs.
And Lara Gillespie, a former junior European champion, took her first elite international accolade with bronze in the omnium.
The Irish women had already won gold
at the meeting before today’s incredible evening session for Ireland as Murphy,
Griffin, Gillespie and Alice Sharpe claimed gold in the team pursuit on
Thursday.
That means Ireland has already won two events and claimed a silver and bronze in an unprecedented run of results for Irish riders at the same UCI World Cup.
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In the individual pursuit today, Murphy met Russian rider Alena Ivanchenko in the final. The Irish rider took the gold in a time of 3:30.422, which was considerably faster than her rival’s time of 3:33.064.
Griffin also came up against one of the home riders, Mariia Miliaeva, in the bronze medal ride-off. And the Irish woman recorded a time of 3:37.075 to easily beat the Russian, who did a time of 3:44.694.
In qualifying,
Murphy was fastest of the field when she broke her own national record for the
event, with a time of 3:29.510.
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Ivanchenko was next quickest, but was 3.487 seconds slower than Murphy, meaning the Irishwoman went forward to the gold-silver ride-off against the Russian as favourite to take the gold medal.
Griffin was 3rd fastest in qualifying, some 6.410 off Murphy’s time. Miliaeva was 4th in qualifying, more than three seconds slower than Griffin.
That left the bronze medal ride-off set up in the same way as the gold-silver contest; with the Irish rider favourite to come out on top. And that’s exactly what happened, with Murphy and Griffin holding their nerve and taking their medals.
In the omnium, Lara Gillespie adds her bronze medal to the medals she took on the boards at the Europeans and Worlds during both of her junior seasons.
The 20-year-old, reigning Irish road race champion, performed very strongly throughout the four events that make up the omnium. Gillespie was 5th in the scratch race, 2nd in the tempo race, 8th in the elimination race and 4th in the points race, collecting a total of 110 points.
The gold medal was won by Portugal's Maria Martins, who won the elimination race, was 2nd in both the points and scratch races and 3rd in the tempo race. Martin, a professional road cyclist who competes for Drops-Le Col, won the omnium with a total of 131 points.
Verena Eberhardt of Austria claimed the silver with 117 points and on the European road racing scene she rides for UCI outfit Team Rupelcleaning, where she is a team mate of Gillespie, Griffin and Murphy.
Aside from Ireland's three medal winners today, other Irish riders were also in action, with Orla Walsh among the eight riders qualifying for the final of the 500m TT, where she placed 5th. JB Murphy is in action for Ireland tomorrow in the men's omnium.
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