World Track Championships - Melbourne 4/8 April - Warning contains unmasked spoilers

Martyn Irvine is currently in 7th place in the European qualification rankings for the Olympics. The World Championships are the final qualifying event, and Martyn needs to be ranked in the top 8 to qualify. Ireland currently has 785 points, ahead of Poland (700), Denmark (670), The Netherlands (498) and Turkey (343). There are other European teams that have more points than Turkey, but have not qualified a rider for the World Championships, so cannot overhaul Ireland in the rankings

There are 500 points available for the winner, 320 for 2nd, 240 (3rd), 220, 200 and so on down to 30 points for participating (without being disqualified). That means Turkey would need to win the event and the Netherlands would need to be in the top 2 to overhaul him (assuming he is not disqualified) - both scenarios are very unlikely, particularly as the Netherlands have not sent their best rider, and virtually all of the World's top riders will be there. Hence the only realistic opposition for the Olympic place are Poland and Denmark, and both would need to overtake Ireland to stop Martyn qualifying. Essentially to get past Ireland the Dane would need to finish in the top 2 (again very unlikely) or at least 6 places ahead of Ireland if both are in the top 12

FWIW, Martyn is currently 6th in the World rankings, although he has been at every event, and some of the stronger teams send different riders. Having said that, based on his performances so far this season a top 5 finish is a realistic possibility, although it may make more sense to play safe in some of the events to ensure Olympic qualification.

World record for Thomas, Clancy, Kennaugh and Burke taking gold for GB in the Team Pursuit

Mens Omnium, Day 1

Martyn Irvine's campaign gets under way at (if everything goes to schedule) just after 7.30 Thursday morning our time. Unlike the World Cup events, there's no pre-qualification race to worry about, it's straight into the competition proper with the Flying lap (or "Tour lancé") - basically a couple of laps to build up then all-out for a lap to record a time over 250m.

Next up, around 10.45am, is the points race, with the elimination race closing off proceedings at around 2.15pm

The first day is generally considered the weaker of the two for Martyn. He tends to do OK in the points race but having been disqualified from the elimination race in one of the World Cup events earlier in the season, he will be grateful to get through the day unscathed, and hopefully in a position to attack the second day's events.

Points race now on - Picks up a point in the 3rd sprint to go into equal 7th

The Dane has 3 points, and the Pole none

2nd place in the final sprint moves him up to 8th place, 2 behind Denmark, with Poland 11th, Turkey 13 and the Netherlands 20th

Puts him in 8th after 2 events (16 points), Denmark 5th (13), Poland 17th (30), Turkey 16th (30), The Netherlands 20th (36)

Omnium elimination race on now - he's taken 14th

Equal with China in the medals table

An early start tomorrow with events in Melbourne starting at 4am with the Mens sprint qualification .

Martyn Irvine's first event of the day is the 4km pursuit, which is due to kick-off at around 6am. The riders go in pairs, in reverse order based on their current position, meaning Martyn will be up against Belgian Gijs van Hoecke, I would guess at just before 7am

Live coverage on Eurosport commences at 10am, and Martyn's penultimate event, the scratch race, is due off around 10.50, the final event, again in reverse order, is the 1km TT, starting around 12.45.

Let's hope he can take some inspiration from Caroline's fantastic performance and build on today's solid start.

Shannon McCurley will also be racing in the scratch race, starting around 10.25am

Denmark take the lead in the Pursuit. Martyn down to 2nd with only 3 to go, as the Italian is a DNS

Poland are in 7th, the Netherlands 15th and Turkey 16th. In terms of teh overall competition it's pretty much impossible for the Netherlands and Turkey and to get anywhere near what they would need to overtake him. Denmark may well do what the need to, and Martyn simply needs to keep the Pole in his sights

Omnium scratch race - Martyn just need to stay in the bunch and react to anything the Pole does (and stay upright!)