CYCLING O'Loughlin Wins Silver in Copenhagen

David O'Loughlin stepped up on to the podium again today when he claimed silver in the Individual pursuit at the track World Cup in Copenhagen. O'Loughlin recorded the second fastest time in the morning qualifiers in a time of 4.24.891 behind Taylor Phinney of USA who recorded a phenomenal time of 4.15.223 beating the track record for the distance.

O'Loughlin then had to face Phinney in the evening Gold final race and finding an answer to such a performance was never going to be easy. O'Loughlin started fast and was within 0.5 seconds for most of the first half of the event, finally fading to be caught on the last lap.

This was a great performance by O'Loughlin against an in-form Phinney securing Ireland's second medal at World level in as many months after a gap of over a decade. The performances over the last two world cups placed O'Loughlin a fine fourth in the final World Cup Overall standings, made all the more creditable having only competed in 2 of the 5 rounds.

This puts O'Loughlin in a strong position going into next months World Championships in Poland. O'Loughlin was pleased with his performance 'I have been working specifically towards the World Championships next month and this performance today is another step towards that goal. I'm very pleased to be back on the podium and I gave it my best in the final.' He went on again to express his gratitude for the support and services received from Cycling Ireland, the Irish Institute of Sport and the Irish Sports Council'.

Team coach Tommy Evans was very happy with O'Loughlin's performance 'David has been working hard towards the World championships and we have been putting a specific programme together to get him ready for that. Today was another step in that process. We are trying new things and his improvements in the areas we have highlighted together are very encouraging'.

Speaking afterwards, Team manager Brian Nugent summed up the performance, 'David rode a controlled race today and thoroughly deserved his silver medal. He is building up to the world's and used this as an opportunity to try some things out. They worked well for him. The team is moving forward in a very positive and structured way and we are very focused on ways to move the programme forward. This is another great result for team and we are all looking forward to the team pursuit tomorrow'
Current European Junior Points race champion, 18 year-old Sean Bennett, made his World Cup debut in the point's race.

Bennett struggled with the huge jump in the level of competition coming up against Olympic medallists and did not finish his heat. Bennett will ride in the Scratch race on Saturday morning to gain more experience for the future. This is Bennett's first year as a senior rider moving straight from the Junior National squad to the Elite squad as part of the 2012 programme.