Irish Paracyclists secure Irelands first slots for London 2012

The International Governing Body for Cycling UCI announced yesterday that Ireland had qualified one Female Slot and on Male Slot for the Paracycling competitions at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.  This is as a result of Ireland finishing in a record 15th place in the UCI End of Year Country rankings on 31st of December 2010.

The top 40 countries in the Male Rankings and top 25 Countries in the Female Rankings were allocated one slot each.  The great successes recorded by the Irish squad during 2010 including Mark Rohan’s Road World Championship victory in Canada helped move Ireland up the rankings list and pretty much guaranteed the two places on offer explained Irish Paracycling Manager Denis Toomey.

The remaining qualification slots for the 2012 Games in London will be based on the number of ranking points accrued during the qualifying events between 1st of January 2011 and 13th of February 2012.   For 2011 these events include:

• 2011 Track World Championships in Italy in March
• 2011 Road World Championships in Denmark in September
• 3 Road World Cups in Australia, Spain and Canada and 3 UCI P1 Road and 2 UCI P1 Track events in Europe during the year.

An extremely busy year lies ahead for the squad who leave Dublin today for their first Track Camp in Palma in preparations for the March Track World Championships.

Paracycling Ireland will be hoping to improve on their record 4 slots achieved for the 2008 Games in Beijing and have set a target of a minimum of 5 slots for London.  Once the final allocations have been advised by the UCI in February 2012 then the individual athletes to secure the places on the London Team will be announced in accordance with the London 2012 Selection Criteria.