Mullen to Race for Bronze in Senior Track World Championship Debut, Irvine 12th

Nineteen year old Ryan Mullen has qualified for the Bronze Medal Ride off in the Individual Pursuit at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Cali, Colombia. The young rider impressed in the qualifying rounds of the Individual Pursuit tonight, finishing as 4th fastest rider, and will race for Bronze later on tonight. Martyn Irvine, who won silver in this event last year, finished in 12th position. The gold medal will be decided between Alexander Edmondson (AUS) and Stefan Keung (SUI). Mullen will challenge Marc Ryan (NZL) for the Bronze, with 0.554 seconds separating the two. Irvine competes in the Scratch Race final later on tonight, where he starts as reigning World Champion.

Mullen, who won a bronze medal in the Individual Pursuit at the U23 European Championships last year in his first year out of the junior ranks, has been improving constantly on the track. In January he finished the Individual Pursuit in 7th place, in a time of 4.25.664, and this evening he clocked up an impressive personal best of 4.22.419.

Speaking after the qualifying round, Head Coach Brian Nugent said "That was a super debut by Ryan in his first World Championships. He rode really strong, and held on well. It will be a great final tonight. The job isn't done yet."