Irish Show Well At European Track Championships

Ireland's quartet of riders produced another series of strong perfomances on the third day of action at the European Track Championships at Grenchen.

Eoin Mullen, Fintan Ryan, Shannon McCurley and Mark Downey all performed with distinction through a busy programme at the Swiss velodrome.

The racing got under way early in the day with the Men's Sprint where Eoin Mullen qualified 18th with a flying 200 time trial time of 10.235s.

The Swiss-based Aran Islander was beaten by the fastest qualifier Jeffrey Hoogland (Netherlands) in the first round and exited the competition after finishing second to Andriy Vynokurov (Ukraine) in the round one repechage, albeit ahead of former world champion Francois Pervis.

Fintan Ryan was Ireland's representative on day one of the Men's Omnium, the 19-year-old Team Pursuit squad member given his first opportunity in a senior international championship omnium.

Ryan was 17th in the opening 15km, 60-lap Scratch Race and followed that up with 18th fastest time in the 4km Pursuit. In the evening session, Ryan was 19th in the Elimination Race to lie 19th overnight.

Shannon McCurley made her 2015 European Championship debut in the Women's Scratch Race. The sprint specialist was with the bunch until the late stages of 40-lap, 10km event but as the pace told at the back end of the race, McCurley was forced to retire after what had been a useful championship experience.

McCurley will be back in action in her favoured Keirin on Sunday's final day of action.

Mark Downey was active throughout his first appearance in a European Elite Points race, scoring points in two of the event's 16 sprints and spending several laps off the front of the bunch.

The 19-year-old, a former Junior Points Race silver medallist, looked comfortable in the pack and had the energy and ambition to make a significant contribution to the race.

Afterwards, Team Technical Director Brian Nugent paid tribute to the efforts of his charges.

"Eoin went well in the qualification this morning to make it through to the last 18. He had a difficult first round but was competitive in the reps to pick up some useful ranking points.
That will set him up well for the World cups.

Fintan and Mark are getting a great development opportunity in the Omnium and the Points Race and both are really learning a lot against this level of competition."

Tomorrow's penultimate day of racing begins at 8.30 am Irish time with the first race in the Women's Omnium, the Scratch Race, where Lydia Boylan goes for Ireland.

That's followed by the Men's Indvidual Pursuit qualifying with former world championship silver medallist Martyn Irvine joined by Marc Potts.

Fintan Ryan returns for the final three races in the Men's Omnium starting with the Flying Lap 200m Time Trial.

In the evening session Felix English rides the Elimination Race while in the sprint events, Eoin Mullen goes in the Men's Kilometer Time Trial and Eimear Moran rides the Women's 500m Time Trial.

The European Track Championships will be covered live on Eurosport TV during the week. Check listings for details.