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Last Updated: Jan 31st, 2008 - 16:25:03 |
Murphy Gunn International Track Meet
By Hugh Byrne, CI Track PRO
Jul 15, 2007,
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After days of lighting candles, we had an all too brief interlude of sunshine during which our aspiring track stars got a chance to test themselves against the best of the best at Sundrive Road. Unfortunately the weather has been a constant thorn in the side of outdoor track racing all over Europe this 'Summer' and as such despite the generous sponsorship of Murphy & Gunn, due to the uncertainty of the weather we failed to attract the overseas riders who graced our event last year. Despite this, we were appreciative of the opportunity to test our upcoming riders against our more established ones and a chance for our tandem riders to showcase their talents. We also had a record number of female entrants, many of them very new to the track, and this was their first real taste of what track racing was really about. And what a days racing it was! We had 6 tandem pairings and the surge of power created by 4 legs pushing these beasts has to be seen to be believed. Solo riders never ceased to be impressed when watching the tandems race and the experience that these pairings have accumulated over the past year was very much in evidence today.
Cathal Miller who rides in the upcoming World Championships (LC1 arm amputee category) took the opportunity to give himself a serious test by challenging part man / part motorbike Neil Delahaye to a 4k pursuit. A close run affair which showed that Cathal is well on track (pardon the pun) to be a medal challenger in his upcoming Championships. This pairing also had a head to head TT over the 1k distance with Neil posting a time of 1.15.77 in an event that is obviously new to him, and Cathal posting a quite respectable time of 1.16.30. I have a feeling the Neil will be back to further hone his track skills and perhaps to ruffle a few feathers at the National Track C/ships later in the year.
In the men's Omnium Brian Conway got off to a flying start winning both the 10 lap scratch and 1km dash. The 1k distance is quite an interesting one as it only humanly possible to blast the first 500m and it's it's suffer bigtime for the next 500! Very exciting racing but nothing compared to the excitement and drama brought to us in the third event of the Elite Men's Omnium, the Sprint! As it was an Omnium, opponents were drawn rather than have the usual flying 200 qualiiers and run over over 1 heat with a repercharge for 1st round losers. I have never seen so many races decided by such narrow margins and you had to be right on the line to see exactly who won the head to heads.
Murphy & Gunn were represented trackside, by one of our more experienced Track Sprinters, Malcolm Goggin, who was on hand to watch the young guns put it up to our more established riders. It all went down to a one off sprint between one of our newest sprint talents Darren O'Toole (Bray Wheelers) and a young man from Limerick, Michael Mulcahy (Cycling Pusuits). All the more remarkable as Darren only started track racing this year and Michael, who won all his match sprints,does all his fixed wheel sprint training on the road in Limerick. No mistake, these guys are seriously fast and they beat some very good riders en route to the final including a very impressive young rider from the Phoenix Club in Belfast, Robert Wattesson. It bodes well for the future too see this talent emerge. Meaningful competition like this brings the best out of riders and gives the newer riders a glimpse of what they can achieve.
Then just when the track meet was in full swing, down came the rain and everyone ran for the cover of our one and only tent. We still had the feature race, the Elite Murphy's Wheel 20k scratch, to run but as this was not part of the Omnium it was decided to defer this to be run on Wednesday evening at 8pm during our normal Wednesday (18th July).evening track league. This race was won last year by Paul Healion and it carries a cycling specific trophy that would adorn any coffee table. This is most defintely a race worth winning and most entrants will be making the return journey to partake in it. We will also welcome any new entants who wish to compete.
Results
Elite Men's Omnium
1. Brian Conway (IMBRC)
2. Paul Doyle (Sorrento)
3, Michael Mulcahy (Cycling Pursuits)
Ladies Omnium
1. Kate Rudd (Dunboyne/Cycleways)
2. Joanna Hickey (Usher)
= Heather Boyle (Ravens)
3. Aideen Collard (Orwell)
Tandem Male
1. A Fitzgerald / J Lynch
= M Delaney / D Peelo
Tandem Female
1. C Walsh / J Hickey
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