Ireland’s Mark Downey and Felix English finished sixth in the Madison on the final day of the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.
In a lively event, which was won by France with Australia and Belgium taking silver and bronze, Downey and English were pipped for fifth on the line by Switzerland on equal points.
English commented afterwards: "That was genuinely the hardest race of my life! From the moment it started, it was full gas. We did our best to conserve energy in the first half, and then had to ride hard for the rest of the race – at one point I went into the red to get across to the lead group."
"We felt we owed a good performance to everyone, and it was a nice positive way to end the week" - Mark Downey
This has been a phenomenal year for English and Downey in the Madison, an event that is being proposed for inclusion on the Olympic programme for 2020.
English continued: "We’re really happy today, six months ago we weren’t even in contention, and it was only after our gold and silver in it at the World Cups in Cali and LA that we actually qualified for the Madison in the Worlds!
"And now we are competing with the top riders in the world. We are still inexperienced in this event, and we are still in there."
Downey echoed his teammate’s sentiments: "We really picked ourselves up after the last few days, where we just below par. We felt we owed a good performance to everyone, and it was a nice positive way to end the week.
"It was a busy season for everyone, so it’s nice to go home with smiles on our faces. We weren’t on the podium, but to get sixth at the Worlds in our first year in the Madison is pretty good."
Earlier this morning Lydia Gurley was 15th in the Points Race and Shannon McCurley was 21st in the Keirin.
Fourth in her repechage was not enough to qualify McCurley through to the second round, but the 24-year-old is determined to regroup and improve.
She said: "I didn’t race to how well I was performing in training, and I’m quite gutted. I’m still learning and getting stronger so we can only keep building.
"My training partner [Awang] won the men’s race and he’s my idol. It took him ten years and many before that to win that World Championship crown, so I’ve got plenty more to give.
"I only switched to Keirin racing three years ago. I’ll be back stronger next season and pushing harder for a real chance come Tokyo."
In the Points Race a battered Gurley finished 15th, with the toll of the crashes in yesterday’s Madison Race taking its toll.
The Galway girl described the race as "fast and quite aggressive" and was disappointed with her results after the weekend, saying: "I’m definitely hungry for more. Now I’ll take a bit of a break and then get back on the bike, there’s a lot of work to do."
