skip to main content

Orla Walsh 12th in keirin as Ireland finish ninth in madison at European Cycling Championships

Orla Walsh stalks her semi-final rivals
Orla Walsh stalks her semi-final rivals

Orla Walsh came home 12th in the keirin event at the European Championships in Munich.

Walsh reached the semi-finals early in the day where she finished sixth, before racing in the 7-12 final, and coming home last.

The madison team of Mia Griffin and Lara Gillespie

Elsewhere, Ireland have finished ninth in the madison event at the Messe Munchen.

The team of Mia Griffin and Lara Gillespie ended up with a score of -40, as they were lapped by the field twice during the 120-lap 30km race, while also failing to pick up any points in the sprint laps.

An early fall for Griffin set Ireland off on the backfoot, but the duo recovered well to finish four places higher than Team Ireland had managed at last year's competition.

"Overall, I’m happy with the team’s performance," said Head track coach, Dan Henchy

"I can’t fault the team’s efforts this week. It’s been a mixed bag, some real highs with a few national records obviously with Kelly’s result in the individual pursuit and Orla too and then quite a few bumps and bruises for those who have come down in crashes.

"Whenever you take a team away to a championship event you always get the highs and lows, but I think a few riders will need a bit of recovery and we’ve learned a lot to take into the World Championships and later in the year and then Olympic qualifying starting early next year."

Read Next