Mullen and McCurley Round off Final World Cup

Sprinters Fall Short of Finals at Track World Cup

In the final day of racing at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong Ireland’s Eoin Mullen and Shannon McCurley finished in 27^th and 17^th respectively in the men’s sprint and women’s keirin event. Fifth for McCurley in the first round of the keirin, and third in the repechages resulted in a finish position of 17^th for the Australian based rider. In the sprint Mullen was hoping for a top 24 time to progress to the next round, but fell short by a mere 0.062 second, finishing in 27^th place. Earlier this weekend Felix English finished in 4^th place in the Men’s Scratch event, narrowly missing out on a medal. The World Cup in Hong Kong is the final one before the Track Cycling World Championships in London in March and ran from Friday 15^th to Sunday 17^th January.

The kierin is an event suited to sprinters, where a motor pacer, or derny sets a pace for riders over 8 laps of the Velodrome, with the pace increasing each lap. With up to 7 riders in each heat, the top 2 riders qualify through the first round, and a further rider in the repechages, resulting in 12 riders fighting out for the coveted medals. McCurley’s 3^rd place finish in the repechages put her in 17^th place overall, and 18^th place in the overall World Cup rankings.

The sprint event starts off with a 200m qualifying round, where the riders compete for a place in the match sprint rounds between the top 24 riders. While Mullen qualified through to this round in the last World Cup in New Zealand, today the 22 year old rider was outside his personal best time, missing out on qualifying through to the next round.

Speaking from Hong Kong Technical Director Brian Nugent is pleased with the performance of the team in the World Cups this season saying “The team are now looking towards the World Championships in London in March. We’ve qualified a big team through these World Cups and we will go there with confidence. We’ve progressed massively this season and we’re looking to keep building on that.” The UCI Track Cycling World Championships take place in London from the 2^nd – 6^th March.

RESULTS:

Women’s Keirin:

1. KRUPECKAITE Simona LTU

2. MORTON Stephanie JAY

3. LEE Wai Sze HKG

17. MCCURLEY Shannon IRL

Men’s Sprint

1. CONSTABLE Patrick AUS

2. XU Chao CHN

3. KENNY Jason GBR

27. MULLEN Eoin IRL (10.287)