Great Day For The Irish With Top Performances At the Track Cycling Worlds

Saturday's morning session at the 2015 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Paris got off to a great start, with Eoin Mullen qualifying to the next round with a sea level personal best time of 9.939sec in the 200m Sprint time trial, in the next round he was beaten by New Zealand rider Edward Dawkins. In round one of the Women's Omnium Caroline Ryan sensationally lapped the field in the Scratch Race, finishing third, and followed it with a tenth place in the Pursuit, putting her in sixth place going into round three later tonight. Ryan Mullen was also racing in the Men's Individual Pursuit, where the 29 year old finished in 7th place. In the Men's Omnium Martyn Irvine is lying 17th going into the final round, after the Kilo TT and the Flying Lap earlier today. Ryan will also be racing in the Women's Scratch Race today shortly after 6pm Irish time. The World Championships run from the 18-22 February.

Ryan was delighted with her 6th place position going into round three of the Women's Omnium tonight, after good performances this morning "I never thought I'd hear that, lying sixth in the Omnium! I'm delighted; really the Scratch Race went perfect. I saw girls going at the right time and just went with it to see, and you know, the legs felt good, they've felt good since I've come here really. I've worked really hard on the sprint. It's great to finally see it, and for it to come right at the worlds as well." Ryan has had a turbulent season so far "During the year I've had ups and downs, sick in one and a crash in another, things just happen, and that's bike racing. I have the stand alone scratch race tonight, and the Elimination later on. It can catch you out, but I'll just go for it, with the aim to be in it at the halfway point." The Scratch Race is a stand-alone final, and one she is looking forward to after being in the winning move for the last two years "I love it, I guess I enjoy them. Anything can happen, you can have all the form in the world, and maybe that's why I was nervous this morning, but you get one or two races out of the system and I have the right form. If you can hit the right move, anything can happen, but you might not, and that's bike racing. I'll go to just see how it goes, have a crack and enjoy it, that's the best I can do."

In the Men's Individual Pursuit Ryan Mullen finished 7th, the young An Post Chain Reaction rider has had a superb season both on the track and the road, and finished 4th in this event last year. However, with it being the year before the Olympic Games a fast time of 4.22.669 was not enough to make the medal ride off. Mullen was hoping for a better result saying "It was all going to plan for the first 2km, but I couldn't quite stay on the power. I wasn't all there today, the team around me has been incredible, I'm more gutted I couldn't do right for them. The field this year is really good, I'm relatively happy with where I finished on the board, but not it's not what I wanted."

After the Men's Sprint 1/16 Finals Eoin Mullen was upbeat about his performance at the World Championships, especially with his best ever time at sea level and reaching his target of top 24 "That was kind of the target coming in, top 24, and I was hoping for a sub 10, and I got it as well, so I'm delighted!" Regarding it being his best time at sea level saying "I'd done a 10.1 in racing, and done a few 10.0s in training but never a sub 10 in a race, so it's good! I met Dawkins in the next round I knew what he was going to do, he dived down, I could have closed him off but I hesitated for that split second and then he went." The 20 year old part of a long term plan for the 2020 Olympics, with also an aim of qualifying for Rio in 2016. "In Minsk (World Championships 2013) was an experience, it seems I was a little boy back then, I've come a long way, the progression is good. You've got to keep your head high as well. It's nice to finish the season on a high as well. Rio is more a hope of qualifying, and use that as experience and everything, and the target would be Tokyo and give that the best shot, fingers crossed."

Later this evening Caroline Ryan races in the Scratch Race, and the Elimination race, with Martyn Irvine competing in the final Points Race. The UCI Track Cycling World Championships take place in the Velodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in Paris from the 18-22 February.