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Following a successful start to the 2024, the Irish Track Team compete in Adelaide, Australia for the opening round of the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup, taking place from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th of February.
Five athletes will compete across four events over the weekend.
Mia Griffin, Lara Gillespie, Alice Sharpe and Kelly Murphy will ride in the Team Pursuit, with Erin Creighton as reserve. This is a key event for Ireland, as Olympic qualification in the Team Pursuit provides automatic qualification for the Madison event at the Games.
Creighton will also be in Elimination Race action on the opening day as she continues to gain experience among the world's best.
Sharpe and Griffin combine for the Women's Madison on the second day. The pair are back together in the fast and furious event after Sharpe teamed up with Gillespie in the same event at the European Championships.
Gillespie once again takes on the Women's Omnium on the final day of the weekend, following on from her exceptional fourth place finish at the 2024 UEC Track European Championships, narrowly missing out on a medal by one point.
This is the first of two key events in Ireland's bid for Olympics Qualification. Ireland currently sit in ninth place for Olympic qualification with the top ten nations qualifying.
Speaking ahead of the Nations Cup, Cycling Ireland High Performance Director Iain Dyer said:
“The team coped fantastically well with a tough first day in Team Pursuit at the Euro’s and bounced back really strongly to finish fourth. This keeps our Olympic qualification in TP, Madison and Omnium on track with two big Nations Cups to come.
"Hopefully the team can continue this momentum in Adelaide and we can explore our line up and race strategy further in both TP and bunch racing events.â€
Ireland Schedule (Irish Time)
Friday, February 2nd
Women's Team Pursuit Qualifying - 11:30pm (-1 Day)
Erin Creighton - Women's Elimination Race Qualifying - 4:01am
Women's Team Pursuit First Round* - 4:45am
Women's Team Pursuit Finals* - 8:46am
Women's Elimination Race Final* - 9:53am
Saturday, February 3rd
Alice Sharpe, Mia Griffin - Women's Madison Qualifying - 4:25am
Women's Madison Final* - 8:30am
Sunday, February 4th
Lara Gillespie - Women's Omnium
Qualifying - 12:17am
Scratch Race - 5:30am
Tempo Race - 6:10am
Elimination Race - 7:36am
Points Race - 8:23am
* Subject to Qualification
Live Timing and Results
Full start lists, live timing and results can be found click here