Irish rider Melanie Spath has finished in 7th place in the Individual Pursuit at the UCI 2016 Track Cycling World Championships today. The German born rider was riding in her first track cycling World Championships when she recorded a time of 3.40.03 in the 3km race against the clock.
The top four riders will fight it out for medals later on tonight. Spath kicked off Ireland’s World Championship campaign today in the event which will run until Sunday 6th March. Also in action today is Felix English who competes in the Scratch Race later on this evening.
In the Individual Pursuit Spath set out strong and found a good rhythm in the opening laps. The determined rider said “We had a plan of giving it all in this one because you don’t get a chance like this very often, so I thought okay, if I get this chance I’ll go for it, I will not hold back.”
“After a strong start the pace felt a little fast “I looked at the lap counter and I said maybe this is five laps to go, and it was six laps to go, so the pain was starting to come a little bit early.”
Her finishing time of 3.40.03 put Spath in seventh place in the qualifying rounds “I wish I had done a little bit better, I would have liked to have cracked the 3.39 market, but I can’t be too unhappy with it. I gave it all, it was the best I could do on the day.”
While this was the first Track Cycling World Championships for Spath, this was not her first World Championships, as the multi-disciplined rider has already competed for Ireland on the mountain bike at the Marathon MTB World Championships and on the Road at the World Championships in Florence in 2013.
Speaking about her cross discipline focus Spath said “I’ve gone full circle, now I’m cycling in circles on a track and doing the Track World Championships. It’s kind of cool having done so many different disciplines.”
The focus for Spath now switches to the Team Pursuit which takes place tomorrow, Thursday 3rd March, she is looking forward to this event saying “Today was more of an opener for me now, so that’s how I see it. I think the team pursuit tomorow will be just great. I’m really looking forward to it, we’re all in really good form, it’s just about getting it out on the day.”
Later on today Felix English will be competing in the Scratch Race, an event won by Martyn Irvine at the 2013 World Championships. Brighton-born English has performed well in this event already this year having finished 4th in the Scratch Race at the Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong last January. Tomorrow will see the Women’s Team Pursuit in action along with Shannon McCurley in the Keirin and Lydia Boylan in the Scratch Race.
Racing at the UCI 2016 Track World Championships takes place in the London Lee Valley VeloPark from 2-6 March 2016. BBC and Eurosport will be broadcasting the highlights of the events throughout the championships.
RESULTS:
Women’s Individual Pursuit Qualifying Rounds *
1. WIASAK Rebecca (AUS) 3.31.287
2. WOJTYRA Malgorzata (POL) 3.34.519
3. FOREMAN-MACKEY Annie (CAN) 3.35.694
4. WINDER Ruth (USA) 3.37.016
7. SPATH Melanie (IRL) 3.40.030
