Orla Walsh reached the last 32 in the women’s sprint and Alice Sharpe was 11th in the elimination race as Ireland's Track World Cycling Championships continued in Paris.
Walsh successfully reached the 1/16 Finals with a strong qualifying time of 11.079 seconds – less than 0.2 seconds off the national record she set at the European Championships in August.
In the next round she faced Great Britain’s Sophie Capewell - who qualified with a time of 10.492s - in the 1/16 Finals, but narrowly missed out in the sprint by 0.126s.
Walsh said: "I’m happy enough with how I performed, the 11.079s is not far off my PB time anyway. It’s been quite a long season and I’ve been improving with each race so there comes a point where you need to take a step back and train."
"It (the time) was pretty much close to what I was doing in training anyway, so it was what I was expecting. It would’ve been nice to go faster than my PB but there’s always next year."
"I have the 500m (TT) which is nice, I like it. That’s just full gas out of the gate and it would be nice to do a PB time there. I don’t know where the legs are at with the 500m to be honest because it isn’t an Olympics event, so I was focusing on the sprint. It’ll just be another race in the legs, we’ll see how I go and I’ll try and enjoy it."
In the evening session, Sharpe started well a competitive field of 24 riders, comfortably avoiding elimination in the opening laps.
But as the field began to whittle down and the competition to avoid elimination intensified, a crash at the rear of the group ruled out a number of riders.
Sharpe avoided the crash but later in the race found herself boxed in late in a lap and was narrowly eliminated in 11th place.
Sharpe said: "I’m kind of disappointed with the result, I would’ve liked to have been a bit further up there, but I can take confidence from it going into the Madison on Saturday [with Mia Griffin]. My legs felt good but my positioning wasn’t so great in the finish and I got caught out."
"It’s annoying that it was my awareness rather than my legs but at the same time I can take that confidence going into the Madison. We had a good race back in Canada a few months ago so hopefully we can replicate a performance like that again. We’re both in a good place and motivated so we’re excited to see what we can do."
Elsewhere today, Britain toppled Olympic champions Italy to claim the men's team pursuit world title in a thrilling final.
Dan Bigham, Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood and Ethan Vernon helped Britain win their first title in the discipline since 2018, clocking 3:45.829 to finish 0.2 seconds before defending champions and world record holders Italy.
Denmark took the bronze medal after defeating Australia for third place, snatching the final podium spot by 1.4 seconds.
In the women's event, the Italian quartet of Elisa Balsamo, Chiara Consonni, Martina Fidanza and Vittoria Guazzini finished in 4:09.760, ahead of Britain's 4:11.369, to take gold. France delighted the home crowd by beating Australia to bronze.
Dutch sprinter Harrie Lavreysen, who won individual and team golds at last year's Tokyo Games, won his third straight keirin world title in a time of 9.751, beating compatriot Jeffrey Hoogland and Colombian Kevin Quintero to the top of the podium.
Belgium's Lotte Kopecky improved on last year's runner-up finish in the women's elimination race by bagging gold, with Italy's Rachele Barbieri finishing second and Jennifer Valente of the United States taking bronze.
Canadian Dylan Bibic, 19, held off Japan's Kazushige Kuboki for a famous victory in the men's 15km scratch race. Roy Eefting of the Netherlands completed the podium.
On Friday, Ireland's Emily Kay will race in the omnium – beginning with a scratch race and followed by a tempo race, elimination race and concluding with a points race.
