Ireland’s Lara Gillespie has won bronze in the Individual Pursuit at the UCI Junior Track World Championships in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Wicklow teenager set a new Junior National Record of 2:20:438 during qualification, averaging 51.268kpm for the 2000m time trial. Gillespie then went up against Marii Milaeva of Russian in the race for bronze. She trailed by almost half a second at the halfway mark but measured her effort perfectly and ultimately claimed Ireland’s first medal at a Junior Track World Championships.
“I’m so happy, I can’t believe it,” Gillespie said. “The last few laps were pretty hard, they were pretty brutal but I worked so hard for this all year so I’m really happy”.
Ally Wollaston of New Zealand took the gold medal ahead of Great Britain’s Elynor Backstedt.
Earlier this season, Gillespie took silver medals in the individual pursuit, scratch race, and points race at the Junior European Championships.
🔊 "I'm so happy, I cant believe it"
Lara Gillespie wins bronze in the Individual Pursuit at the UCI Junior Track World Championships 🥉
Ireland's first medal at a Junior track World Championship ☘ pic.twitter.com/rx5VpPgxJO
— Cycling Ireland (@IreCyclingFed) August 17, 2019
