Another Top Ten for Team Ireland at Worlds in London
Ireland’s Women’s Team Pursuit has finished ninth at the UCI 2016 Track Cycling World Championships today. In a time of 4.32.127 the quartet of Caroline Ryan, Josie Knight, Lydia Boylan and Melanie Spath rode well to finish in a time just outside their personal best. This is the third top ten result recorded by Ireland on day two of the World Championships in London. Shannon McCurley finished in 5th place in the first heat of the Women’s Keirin and will now compete in the Repechages later today. The World Championships run from today, Wednesday 2nd March until Sunday 6th March.
Speaking after the event the Irish women were delighted with their ninth place finish in the World Championships, Boylan said “It’s a fantastic way to finish, and to finish 9th in the world championships ahead of some teams that, you know, we haven’t always beaten so I think it’s a really positive finish.” Despite not qualifying for Rio a top nine position is a fantastic achievement, Spath noted that “it’s nine teams that go to the Olympics so we are basically the top nine in the world, it’s a good position to be in.”
The Women’s Team Pursuit is a 4km race against the clock with four riders sharing the pace making throughout the race. The top 8 teams from the qualifying rounds move to the next round where they compete for medals. With the Irish team being the second team out of thirteen to ride, there was an anxious wait to find out their final placing. Spath said “We finished second and had a decent time for what we thought we were capable of.. what kind of threw off the mix is that Italy had a mechanical during the race so they were sent off last again… it was the last team we knew would be close to our time… so we had to wait til the very end for them to go again and obviously at that stage they knew what they had to do.” Italy took the eight qualifying place in the heats, so moved to the next rounds.
LISTEN TO INTERVIEW WITH WOMEN TP HERE
Shannon McCurley was racing in the heats of the Keirin, a sprint event, and was unfortunate to face two world championships in the heat with only two riders progressing to the next round, she said “My heat was a bit of a difficult one, we looked at that early on and thought, well we’re just going to see if maybe something opens up, but it didn’t go my way that way. But ah it’s good to be out racing just got out of surgery three weeks ago so it’s just good to be here.”
LISTEN TO SHANNON MCCURLEY HERE
Racing continues today with the next round of the Women’s Keirin where the winner of each repechage moves to the next round. Lydia Boylan will be in action again competing in the Women’s Scratch Race later today. Racing at the UCI 2016 Track World Championships takes place in the London Lee Valley VeloPark from 2-6 March 2016. BBC and Eurosport will be broadcasting the highlights of the events throughout the championships.
RESULTS:
Women’s Team Pursuit Qualifying Rounds
1. USA 4.16.180
2. CAN 4.20.664
3. NZL 4.20.673
9. IRELAND 4.32.127