Cycling Ireland’s medal tally has doubled following Lydia Gurley’s bronze medal win in the Women’s Scratch Race in the third round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in the Alcides Nieto Patino Velodrome in Cali, Colombia in the early hours of this morning.
In an aggressive race, Gurley bided her time before attacking, and the move netted bronze for her in the 10-kilometre race, with gold going to USA’s Sarah Hammer, and Evgeniya Romanyuta from Russia winning silver. This result puts Gurley 2nd in the World Cup ranking. .
The 32 year old from Athenry, Galway attacked with Hammer and Romanyuta, with the trio working well together to lap the field.
Delighted with the result Gurley said: “The race was really quick with lots of attacking. The plan was to be patient and wait for the right time to attack. When it came, David [Muntaner] told me to go; I didn’t look back and just went for it. A massive thank you goes to our coach David, literally today I was just the legs, and he was the brains.”
This is the second medal for Ireland following Mark Downey’s dominant gold medal performance on Friday night, with the atmosphere in the team growing with the results.
“Winning a medal was unbelievable. The phenomenal performances of Mark Downey and Lydia Boylan the previous day means there was a really positive feeling in the group. We come to races to compete, and not just to make up the numbers. I’d also like to say a massive thank you to everyone at Cycling Ireland for the support.”
