Good start to the year for the Irish...

Funkyzeit

Good man David!!

Nicholas over to you Down Under...



Ireland's David O'Loughlin has won a bronze medal on the first day of the Beijing World Cup.

O'Loughlin stayed ahead throughout the medal race to secure the win by the narrowest of margins.

He finished less then two tenths of a second ahead of his Ukrainian rival, with both almost equal with 125metres remaining.

The 30-year-old performed well and rode solidly in the morning qualifiers to finish third in a time of 4.27.56 and earn the chance to ride-off for the bronze in the evening finals.

The Mayo man narrowly missed out on a ride-off for gold by less than half a second but made the most of the opportunity to secure Ireland's first Elite medal at world level in over a decade and the first of the new programme aiming for 2012.

O'Loughlin was thrilled with the result: 'It has been worth all the effort over the past few years and I am delighted to finally step on the podium for Ireland after coming so close in the past.'

He went on to express his gratitude for the support and backing of Cycling Ireland, the Irish Institute of sport and the Irish Sports Council.

Team coach Tommy Evans was also overjoyed with the performance:

'David has been in good form all week leading up to this and put in a gutsy performance over the closing kilometre, when he needed to most. We're delighted with the result'.

Speaking afterwards, team manager Brian Nugent summed up the display: 'David rode extremely well and battled hard out there to take the bronze medal.

'That was one of the most exciting pursuits that I've seen in a long time and he certainly had myself and the rest of the support staff sweating a bit towards the end.

'But this has come as a result of a lot of hard work by David and the rest of the team over the last few years after a change in emphasis from road to track.

He added: 'This is a great result, not only for David but the team as a whole and has created a great start to the 2012 programme.

'There will be more to come and we're looking forward to the team pursuit tomorrow.'

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Sean Downey in his first World Cup event rode very well in the Points qualifiers, only missing out on the final on count back after winning a sprint to pick up five points.

Downey will ride in the Scratch race Saturday morning where he will be gunning to make the final.

It is his first year as a senior rider, moving straight from the Junior National squad to the Elite squad as part of the 2012 programme.

RobFowl

Great ride by DOL.
They followed this up today with 7th in the team pursuit in a new Irish record. Just look at some of the teams they beat ! Ukraine, Russia, Italy !!!
Men's team pursuit finale

For gold

1 Team Toshiba 4.01.995 (59.505 km/h)
2 New Zealand 4.02.890
3 Lokomotiv 4.07.919
4 Germany 4.11.789
5 Denmark
6 ISD Sport
7 Ireland
8 China
9 Ukraine
10 Netherlands
11 Russia
12 Italy
13 Poland
14 Iran

scottreynolds

RobFowl wrote: »

2 New Zealand 4.02.890

Oh look we can do something apart from play rugby ... now all I need is for a kiwi to win the tour de france.

Chips Lovell

scottreynolds wrote: »

Oh look we can do something apart from play rugby ... now all I need is for a kiwi to win the tour de france.

Well, you've got Julian Dean for the sprints.