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Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
O'LOUGHLIN SIXTH IN PURSUIT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
By Shane Stokes
26 Mar 2008,
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David O�Loughlin today finished an excellent sixth in the 4000 metre individual pursuit at the world track championships in Manchester, a considerable improvement over his 17th place twelve months ago.
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| Irish National Road Race Champion David O'Loughlin in action at Day 1 of the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships - Photograph © Stephen McMahon |
The 29 year old Mayo rider won his heat and clocked a time of 4 minutes 20.91 seconds, a full 4.4 seconds faster than the national record he set in Beijing on December 7th.
He was lying fourth overall until the final two riders went in the last heat, Jenning Huizenga (Netherlands) and Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain). Both went quicker with Huizenga pipping the reigning world champion to set the quickest time. They will square off in the gold medal final later this evening, while Alexei Markov (Russian Federation) and Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) will fight it out for bronze.
Former world champion and Olympic silver medallist Bradley McGee (Australia) finished just ahead of O�Loughlin in fifth, covering the distance just 0.48 seconds quicker.
O�Loughlin and the Irish team management were delighted with the result, both because of the high placing, the considerable improvement of his existing national record and the fact that it greatly improves O�Loughlin�s chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games. Whether or not he will make it is still unclear; this will be settled once tomorrow�s team pursuit championship is run off.
Either way, today�s performance continues his remarkable rate of progression. O�Loughlin has now gone nine seconds faster than the time he set in September 2006, and 4.4 seconds quicker than the pursuit time he recorded in Beijing last December. If he continues to improve, the Team Pezula rider will be in the hunt for World Cup victories and World Championship medals.
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UCI Track Cycling World Championships, Great Britain, March 26-30:
Day 1 - March 26: Men's individual pursuit:
Qualifying
1, Jenning Huizenga (Netherlands) 4.16.34
2, Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 4.17.02
3, Alexei Markov (Russian Federation) 4.18.24
4, Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) 4.18.33
5, Bradley McGee (Australia) 4.20.43
6, David O'Loughlin (Ireland) 4.20.91
7, Luke Roberts (Australia) 4.21.89
8, Taylor Phinney (United States Of America) 4.22.36
9, Antonio Tauler Llull (Spain) 4.22.65
10, Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine) 4.22.73
Finals
For Gold:
1, Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain) 4.18.52 (55.701 km/h)
2, Jenning Huizenga (Netherlands) 4.23.47
For Bronze:
3, Alexei Markov (Russian Federation) 4.21.10
4, Hayden Roulston (New Zealand) 4.23.66
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26/3/08 O�LOUGHLIN IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PURSUIT TODAY
The world track cycling championships get underway in Manchester this afternoon and Ireland�s sole competitor David O�Loughlin will face one of the most important races in his cycling career.
The Mayo rider is competing in the individual pursuit and after placing seventh, eighth and fourth in World Cup events, knows that a strong ride there could potentially boost his world ranking from 11th and qualify him for the Olympic Games.
O�Loughlin and team manager Frank Campbell have both said that they are unsure what placing would secure a Beijing slot as it depends on how other competitors perform, but certainly a finish in the top seven appears to be the minimum requirement today. In fact, O�Loughlin may need to finish closer to a medal than that, and to do so he will almost certainly have to smash his own national record of 4 minutes 25.31 seconds, as set in the Beijing World Cup in December.
Fortunately he feels that he is in strong form and will line out in this afternoon�s qualifier aiming to go quicker than he ever has before. He will be up against the world number one, Phillip Thuaux of Australia, in the eighth heat. In all 26 riders will pair off and race against each other, with the fastest four in line for the medal finals.
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| David O'Loughlin with Tommy Evans, practicing start efforts |
Irishcycling.com spoke to both O�Loughlin and team manager Frank Campbell yesterday, and will report on the rider�s performance later on today.
David O'Loughlin: I'm feeling good, I'm confident, the form is good and I am in a much better position than this time last year. So I am definitely looking forward to it.
Shane Stokes: You did some world cups and then some racing in South Africa - do you have any indication as to how your pursuit form is now?
DOL: It is as good as I have ever gone, so that is a good place to be right now. I did some testing last week and training has gone well, so�
I had a hamstring problem, I tore it in Copenhagen, so I took a small break after that World Cup and allowed it to heal. It started twinging a bit again last week, but it is still hanging in there!
SS: Frank Campbell said it is uncertain what you need to do to qualify for the Olympics�
DOL: I think a lot depends on not just where I finish, but where everybody else finishes in relation to me. There are also bizarre situations where a country could have two in the top seven plus qualify a team pursuit spot, so that would mean that they have three slots. But [under the Olympic rules] they can only have two, so that means they have to give back another spot. It is difficult.
SS: So you can't even say that a top seven or a top six place will do it, you have to just wait and see?
DOL: No, it is a case of the higher up I can go, the better.
SS: What will you do between now and the race?
DOL: Mostly just relax, it is all done now, really. I have done a really big winter, we have done months and months of training and I think we are in a good place. So I am looking forward to the event.
SS: Looking back to last year, you seemed a lot more nervous at the world championships in Majorca. You have more experience now and have done a lot of work � does that give you confidence?
DOL: Yes. As you said, I am not as nervous as I was last year. I supposed I was very new to do it then. The more I do the better I get; I have worked at a lot of little things that can make a difference. And I will keep working on getting better.
Shane Stokes: Do you know what he needs to do here to qualify?
Frank Campbell: It is really hard to know from the way the criteria has worked out using the World Cup events. It is disappointing and difficult because he has been up there in the first eight in all the World Cups but even if he is in the top seven here, he still might not qualify for the Olympic spot because of the system.
But he knows what he needs to do in his own mind, a time he needs to get�we feel he will have to do a sub 4 minute 25, probably somewhere in the region of 4 minutes 23 to put him in fourth or fifth place. Even then, we will have to wait for the criteria after that. I think this is about the Olympics, but it is also about moving the whole track project forward. If we can continue the improvement and continue the system, then hopefully we get a benefit from it in the future.
SS: Have you had any feedback from training times as to how he is going?
FC: At this stage David has just come back from South Africa where he was racing with the Pezula team. He had some good results there. He has been working with Tommy [Evans] while in South Africa and they feel his fitness is right. Since then he has spent a week in Newport, just honing his track skills again because he hadn't been on a track since Copenhagen. Then he has had his final warm-down here.
He looks in very, very good shape physically. It is just a question of getting used to the track and being able to handle all those pressures and what is involved on the day.
As regards qualifying, it is just not a question of automatically qualifying if he finishes in the first eight, for example. It really depends on who beats him, who doesn't beat him, who loses points, who gains points. We won't really know until the world Championships is over.
SS: Is it fair enough to say that you expect that he will go quicker than he has ever done before?
FC: Yes, yes, we would like to. The schedule that we are working on is quicker than he has done before. That comes from him getting fitter because of the racing he has been doing.
SS: But you feel it will have to probably be better than top seven in order him to stand a chance of getting to Beijing?
FC: We have looked at the qualification so far, we have looked at the people that he is likely to be riding against. We won't know until tonight who actually each of the nations are putting out. Then we will know after that who he has to beat.
We know the Belgian [Dominique] Cornu is going well, he was in South Africa riding well. A lot of them were using the South African race as final preparation for this, so he has got all that right sort of preparation done.
SS: Last year David did see points race as well, but here he will only do the pursuit. Has the criteria for qualification from the world championship events changed, or did he just focus on the pursuit ?
FC: He didn't qualify. Believe it or not, they have changed the format of the points race. They put on directly after, so he would have to go straight from the individual pursuit and ride the points race� that is very, very hard to do.
SS: Traditionally endurance riders might do both�
FC: Yes. What they are trying to do is get a second group of athletes riding points, whereas before there was an event in between and they could get a little bit of rest and do both. There are not able to do it now, as of this year.
The standard is being set by qualifying. To be a good points race rider you have to be a good pursuiter. For the future we are already talking about looking at the omnium events, maybe that is the way to look at things. You ride a pursuit, you ride a 500 metre sprint, you ride a scratch race, a points race. Maybe that combination is better for Ireland and for the type of athletes that we have.
But you also have to be fairly confident in the young guys we have coming forward. The young juniors look to be a really good crop of guys and we started them really young, so they have already spent this year three occasions on the track in Belgium and in Newport. So they are looking good for the future. But they need somebody to look up to and David has to be the pinnacle for them at this stage. It is good to have somebody that they can race against during the weekend and yet still see riding world Championships and world events.
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