NEW NATIONAL RECORD – 4:21.368 ⏱️ What a performance from the Irish girls in the Women’s Team Pursuit. Mia Griffin, Kelly Murphy, Alice Sharpe and Lara Gillespie have knocked a massive 4 seconds off the Irish Record to qualify 8th fastest and progress to the next round of the competition. A great start to the World Championships for #TeamIreland ☘️ (Photo courtesy of CI)
The 2020 World Championships marks the culmination of a 2-year campaign to secure Olympic qualification. The women’s Madison team is well placed inside the qualification zone thanks to a string of big results including a top 10 finish at the 2019 Track World Championships and 8th at the 2019 European Championships. Lydia Boylan and Lydia Gurley will hope to continue the teams run of good form with a strong performance over the 30-kilometre race which features no less than 12-point scoring sprints. The men’s Madison team has spent 2019 building their Olympic ranking, posting many of their best results at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, however, they remain in a battle for the final qualification slot. Mark Downey and Felix English will need to outgun Hong Kong by several finishing places to leapfrog them in the rankings and claim the final qualification slot (report CI)
Technical Director, Brian Nugent added: “It’s been a good year for the team in the Olympic Qualifying events. We have put in a huge amount of work and effort to ensure that we are here in a position to fight for those all-important Olympic slots. There is a big job to be done but we have come a long way this year and we are ready to race and looking forward to the opportunity.”
