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Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
TRACK TEAM HOPE FOR WORLDS RIDE AND CARDING
By Shane Stokes
14 Feb 2009,
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Reacting to today’s fine fifth place in the team pursuit achieved at the World Cup in Copenhagen, Cycling Ireland officials have said that they is hoping that the performance will receive top-level recognition abroad and at home.
The first consideration is relating to participation in next month’s track world championships in Poland. “We are not sure about the worlds yet,” said team manager Brian Nugent. “We are now ranked 11th in the world rankings for team pursuit and the top 20 get invited. However the rules state you must ride 4 world cups and we only rode 2. So we have made to a plea to the UCI on financial grounds.”
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| David O’Loughlin on track for Silver Medal in Copenhagen |
As things stand right now, only individual pursuit rider David O’Loughlin is certain of a worlds ride. He was sixth in last year’s championship, and yesterday took a silver medal in the World Cup. That followed on from his bronze medal in the Beijing round one month ago.
Nugent is also hoping that the time set today by O’Loughlin, David McCann, Paul Healion and Martyn Irvine will secure carding. They covered the 4000 metre distance in a time of four minutes 11.587 seconds, finishing just 0.879 seconds off fourth place, and beating the national record set last month by over two seconds.
“The carding criteria is not clear,” continued Nugent. “It is laid out on the web. Four minutes 11 seconds is mentioned but is not clear if this is sub-4.11 or a time in the 4.11's.”
Whatever happens, he was pleased with how things went. “We have been trying new things in training, and the team is moving forward in a very positive and structured way. We are very focused on ways to move the programme forward.
“We looked at Copenhagen as another opportunity for the team to show the progression that the National Programme has been making. It was very important that we came here and backed up what we did in Beijing last month. We done that convincingly and we have progressed a bit further.
“We are beating very good and well established teams and this squad is still in the early stages of its development. We are gathering good momentum and our confidence is high.”
The time set today was clearly quicker than the then-national record of four minutes 15 seconds, set just over a year ago. The Irish quartet were less than a second outside the time needed to make it into the bronze medal final this evening.
Coach Tommy Evans was also pleased. “We had a game plan and the team stuck to that. We had tried it in training and it went exactly as we had planned. They rode in a very controlled way and got the job done.”
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