CYCLING:David O'Loughlin claimed Ireland's first elite medal at world level in over a decade in Beijing today after he claimed bronze in the 4km individual pursuit at the World Cup. The Mayo rider eventually saw off Ukraine's Volodymyr Diudia by just two tenths of a second after the pair were forced into a ride-off for the last spot on the podium following the morning qualifiers.
New Zealand’s Jesse Sergent scorched home to take gold in 4.17.96, with Ukraine’s Vitaliy Shchedov taking silver.
The colour of medal could have been much brighter as O’Loughlin missed out on a ride-off for gold by half a second at the Olympic Velodrome.
O’Loughlin finished third in the qualifiers in a time of 4.27.56, before clocking 4.28.54 in the ride-off to claim bronze.
Afterwards he expressed his delight at getting the Irish team’s campaign off to a medal-winning start.
“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,” said O’Loughlin.
Team coach Tommy Evans believes the result was in the pipeline after an encouraging build-up to the event.
“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.”
Evans’ sentiments were backed up by team manager Brian Nugent, who admitted the race was almost as tough to watch as ride in.
“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,” said Nugent.
“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.
“This is a great result, not only for David but the team as a whole and has created a great start to the 2012 Track programme. There will be more to come and we're looking forward to the team pursuit tomorrow,” he added.
O’Loughlin will join Martyn Irvine, Paul Healion and David McCann in the team pursuit tomorrow, while Healion will take part in the one kilometre time trial.
Sean Downey will ride the scratch race tomorrow and will have been encouraged after just missing out on the final of the points race on a count back. The 18-year-old is competing in his first World Cup event.