Kelly Murphy's 6th place in the individual pursuit, in a new national record time, was the highlight of Ireland's track campaign over the weekend at the European Championships in Munich, with more racing for the team in coming days.
Murphy (32), the reigning Irish TT champion, placed 6th in he 19-rider field in qualifying, in a time of 3:26.362. Subject to ratification, that was more than a second faster than the Irish record she set for the 3km event at the Worlds in Roubaix last October, when she clocked 3:27.490.
The Irish rider recorded that time while racing against Lisa Brennauer, the world champion from Germany, though that did not put Murphy off her stride.
“I’m feeling really pleased about that. This is quite a hard track to ride, and we haven’t spent much time on the track in training, but we’ve been working on other things like our positions and stuff," Murphy said.
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"I wasn’t terribly happy with the last IP (individual pursuit) I did; my pacing was a bit off so to be able to hold in my head what I needed to do and actually execute it today is actually quite a nice feeling.
“You can’t control what other people do so it’s more a case of forgetting anything else around me and just being selfish and concentrating on your own ride. You know that’s where all your efforts should be going. I expected her (Brennauer) to catch me, and she didn’t and it’s her final race today, so to be up against her it was a great privilege really.”
Brennauer went on to take the silver medal as she was beaten to gold by her German team mate Mieke Kroger. Italian rider Vittoria Guazzini claimed bronze.
In the 500m TT, Orla Walsh (33) was in action for Ireland on Saturday and did a time of 51.171 in qualifying, placing her 14th in the 16-rider field. “The 500 is not my focus, it’s not an Olympic event so it’s just kind of another chance to race and see where I’m at," Walsh said.
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The Irish rider was back in action in the sprint yesterday and did a time of 10.9 in the 200m qualifying round, which was her first time to go under 11 seconds in competition. That time was a new national record, subject to ratification, as it beat Robyn Stewart's marker of 10.994.
That time put Walsh 13th in the qualifying round, of the 18-rider field. With 14 riders to qualify for the 1/8 next round, Walsh went through. She was then up against Germany's Friedrich Lea Sophie, who beat the Irish woman meaning Walsh went out of the competition at that stage.
“I’m feeling very good," Walsh said. "I’ve known for a while now that I could do that time – sub 11 time and I just hadn’t done it on the day in a race so I’m really happy to finally do the 10.9. It would’ve placed me 13th in the seeding.
“I was up against Lea, the German who is a multiple World Champion and she has all sorts of accolades to her name, so I tried my best on this track, but she was the stronger rider so then I finished 13th overall.”
Also yesterday, Mia Griffin (23) rode the points race and finished 9th in the 18-rider event. Griffin put her efforts into gaining a lap and when the moves she went in did not succeed, she collected seven points after scoring in three sprints.
“I’m pretty happy with that. It’s my first points race at Euros or at a major championship so I’m quite happy other than the fact that I didn’t get a lap gain," she said. "But I tried in many moves but it just didn’t seem to happen but I scored a few point and I’m pretty happy with how the ride went."
Alice Sharpe (28), who was part of the Irish team pursuit line-up to take 6th in that event last week, was in action in the elimination race over the weekend, placing 11th in the 17-rider race after coming down in one of the crashes.
“It’s all a bit of a blur. I was well positioned before the first crash and before the second crash too and then after we restarted after the second crash, I just was not able to go over the top. I was a bit lazy and snuck in the bottom and then I was eliminated," she said.
