Ireland’s Lydia Gurley narrowly missed out on a medal in the Scratch Race at the 2017 UEC Track Elite European Championships in Berlin on Saturday.
The Galway woman lapped the field with the three medallists in the latter part of the race, before being pipped on the line for a medal. Gold went to Trine Schmidt (Denmark), silver to Ukraine’s Tetyana Klimchenko, and Russia’s Evgenia Augustinas took bronze.
In the four-event Omnium, Lydia Boylan was 8th and European U23 bronze medallist Mark Downey finished 12thin the Points Race.
In his elite championship debut, junior world silver medallist Xeno Young was disqualified in the Individual Pursuit.
His time of 4.27.445 for 4km was removed from the final results after it was ruled he rode in the slipstream of Belgian’s Sasha Weemaes once he was overtaken. Robyn Stewart finished 13th in the Keirin.
Speaking after the race Gurley was disappointed to miss out on the podium:"I’m gutted really. To be honest I feel like I lost a European medal rather than gained a fourth. I always go into a race thinking I can do something, and I’m disappointed – I think I was strong enough to get a medal."
Gurley is teaming up with Boylan for the Madison today, an event that has recently been added to the Olympic programme, and is looking forward to the race – "We are two strong riders. If we can start okay, we are strong enough to do something."
Mark Downey and Felix English also compete in the men’s Madison on what will be the final day of the Championships and Robyn Stewart will be in action in the Sprint.
