Ulster riders in the medals at National Track Championships

Last weekend saw a packed 2-day programme for the final major track event of the season, the National Men`s and Women`s Senior Championships at the Sun Drive velodrome in Dublin. Ulster had a handful of competitors take part, with three returning with medals and one National title.

In the Men`s sprint event Ballymoney`s Ronan Sherman, riding for Connacht club Black Rose Racing, was the fastest qualifier, and easily made his way through the heats to the Final. This was an extremely close run affair with Eamonn Byrne (Sun Drive Track team). Their `best of three` ride final was a nail biter, with the photo finish equipment required to separate the pair in heat one, which went to Sherman. Heat two saw a reversal with Byrne taking the honours and rain stopped play just as the riders were about to line up for the decider, with everyone having to wait until Sunday for the outcome.

The fact that Ulsterman Sherman was staying with Byrne for the weekend must have led to a quiet Saturday evening, with the two rivals facing each other for a sudden death ride-off on Sunday morning. In the 3rd and final ride, the Dublin rider had the better of his younger rival, taking the Gold medal in convincing fashion. The ride-off for the Bronze medal was an all-Ulster affair with Terry Mackin (Black Rose) beating Drumbo man Tony Mairs to take the final place on the podium.

In the 4k Pursuit event, Newtownards man Martyn Irvine – as expected – was the fastest qualifier in 4 minutes 45 seconds, with the next fastest being a full 10 seconds slower. In the final Irvine coasted to a 15 second victory over UCD`s Con Collis. In the Kilometre Time Trial, Mackin was again in the medals, narrowly missing out on the Gold by 1/100th of a second. Mackin will now turn his attention to the World Masters Track Championships in Manchester next month where he will be on the quest for another medal winning performance.

In the Scratch race, UCD `roadman` Eoin Morton put in one of the rides of the weekend to stay out front on his own for almost a third of the distance to take a well-deserved win, with Ulster`s best placed rider being Patrick Withers (West Tyrone Velo) in 10th place.

The women`s events were dominated by relative newcomer Eimear Moran (Sun Drive Track Club). The former international rower took all 4 gold medals – Sprint; Pursuit; Time Trial and Scratch in impressive fashion.

Report by Anthony Mitchell

Photos by David McVeigh (Belgium Project) - here

Results here

Posted by Martin Grimley (martin@ulsterxc.com)