Records Tumble At Dublin Track Cycling International As Ryan Takes Pursuit Gold

Visiting riders scooped many of the the major medals in the Dublin Track Cycling International at Eamonn Ceannt Stadium this weekend as Caroline Ryan reduced the track record for the 3km Pursuit on her way to the gold medal.

Beating her own Sundrive Road best by almost four tenths of a second, the Kildare-woman was one of five riders to lower the track record in their event as representatives of 13 nations arrived in Crumlin, Dublin for two-day meeting, supported by DCC.

Cameron Karwowski of New Zealand was the fastest of three riders under the stadium men's kilometre record on his way to the silver medal in the Omnium.

Ireland's only UCI Level One track meet of the year attracted three current world track champions, a reigning Junior road race champion and numerous former and current medallists at world, European and Olympic level for two busy days of free entertainment at the Crumlin venue.

As well as Ryan's record setting victory over former world road race champion Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, Cameron Karwowski lowered the previous best in the one kilometre time trial in the fourth race of the Omnium competition by almost one and a half seconds to 1m05.77s.

Other record setting performances came from the Netherlands duo of Kirsten Wild and Roy Eefting in the flying 250m as they shaved 1.2 and .2 of a second of the previous marks during the Omnium competitions to 15.287s and 13.965s, respectively.

Regan Gough's dominant win in the men's 4km Pursuit over Martyn Irvine included an improvement of over 2.5s on Ryan Mullen's venue record set at the same event 12 months ago.

The first event of the weekend was the 200m time trial to decide the qualification and seeding order for the quarter finals of the Men's Sprint.

Great Britain duo Lewis Oliva and Callum Skinner were separated by just three hundredths of a second in securing the top two qualifying positions Francesco Ceci and local hero Eoin Mullen of Team Ireland third and fourth fastest.

This quartet raced through to contest the semi-finals where Skinner despatched Ceci in two straight rides and Oliva eased past Mullen without delay.

Mullen, recovering from a shoulder injury sustained in a crash at a recent track meet in Italy, had no answer to Ceci in the bronze medal ride off before Oliva confirmed his status as fastest qualifier by securing Sprint gold in two tightly contested rides against Skinner.

By that time, team pursuit world champion Regan Gough of New Zealand had secured the first gold medal of the weekend with a dominant win in the men's Points Race during which he lapped the field twice.

Norway's Aleksander Perez took a similarly comfortable second while local rider Murt Rice of Sundrive Track Team raced clear of the bunch for much of the second half to annexe several top scores in sprints on his way to the bronze medal.

The Women's points race also featured plenty of attacking action with Ireland's Caroline Ryan in the thick of the action throughout. Slovakia's Alzbeta Pavlendova was in unstoppable form, though, covering many of the attacks and retaining the strength to scoop up points on a regular basis.

Amy Roberts of Great Britain was already certain of the silver medal by the time of the final sprint where former world road race champion Tatiana Guderzo of Italy managed to score enough points at the the final sprint to pip Ryan to the bronze medal.

The men's 15km Scratch race was a frantic affair with former world champion Martyn Irvine on the attack from the gun, joined early on Max Beyer of Germany. The latter returned to the bunch before Irvine was eventually reeled in.

Remarkably, the Dublin-based Ulsterman was straight back on the attack, riding solo all the way to the final six laps of the 460m circuit before Beyer raced clear again to win the gold medal ahead of Belgium's Moreno de Pauw and Alex Frame of New Zealand.

First on the attack in the Junior Women's Scratch race was Orwell Wheelers' Naoise Sheridan and she ultimately took the win, but not before she had overhauled long time solo breakaway Shenna McKiverigan (Banbridge CC) with Jennifer Neenan (NRPT-Magnet.ie) just failing in a late bid to get back on terms with the lead duo.

The Men's Junior Scratch was a similarly busy affair with Conor Murnane making it a Junior race double for Orwell Wheelers as he edged Xeno Young (Powerhouse Sport) and Barry Talt (Murphy Surveys Kilcullen).

Reigning World Scratch Champion and famed road race sprinter Kirsten Wild took the first of her two gold medals of the weekend when she rubber stamped her command of the Women's Omnium with a canny ride in the final points race on Sunday afternoon.

Wild stalked her only serious rival, Denmark's reigning world Junior Road Race Champion Amalie Dideriksen, throughout the final event to emerge with a ten-point victory having won three of the six events across the two days of racing.

Ireland's Lydia Boylan finished fifth after taking second in the 500m standing start and flying 250m time trials behind Wild. Josie Knight ended the weekend ninth and Lydia Gurley 11th after their first experience of senior international Omnium competition.

Martyn Irvine replicated Boylan's performance in the Men's Omnium, the former Scratch Race World Champion producing typically aggressive performances in the bunch races.

In the final Points race, Irvine vaulted from ninth to fifth, scooping up a total of 40 points during a number of periods out front, riding solo and later with Max Beyer of Germany and later again with Aleksander Perez of Norway.

Meanwhile Nick Kergozou extended his two point advantage over compatriot Cameron Karwowski to secure the gold medal. Karwowski slipped behind the 250m TT winner Roy Eefting of the Netherlands briefly before the Dutch rider found himself in a group that lost a lap.

Spain's Tania Calvo was unstoppable in the Women's Keirin, beating fellow countrywoman and regular Japanese Keirin rider Helena Casas Roige and Slovakian Alzbeta Pavlendova.

The Men's Keirin resulted in a one-three finish for British sprint stars Callum Skinner and Lewis Oliva with Italian Francesco Ceci splitting the two Britons.
The final race of the weekend was the Women's Scratch Race, taken in fine style by reigning world champion Kirsten Wild, taking the arc-en-ciel colours to victory ahead of Amalie Dideriksen and Simona Frapporti of Italy.