Track cyclist Lara Gillespie closed out the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for Team Ireland with a 10th place finish in the final event at the Velodrome; the Women’s Omnium.
TRACK CYCLING
Lara Gillespie helped Team Ireland leave Paris 2024 on a high with a brilliantly gutsy top 10 finish in the gruelling Omnium event at the Saint-Quentin-en Yvelines National Velodrome.
Lara Gillespie helped Team Ireland leave Paris 2024 on a high with a brilliantly gutsy top 10 finish in the gruelling Omnium event at the Saint-Quentin-en Yvelines National Velodrome.
The 23-year-old from Enniskerry was briefly in fourth place at one stage of the Points race, the final element of track cycling’s testing four-race multi-sport event.
Given her youth, and the quality and experience of most of the rest of the 22-woman field, Gillespie, a European U23 champion in Omnium and Points last year, produced a truly stellar performance.
She was Team Ireland’s last competitor in action but utterly focussed on the final day and admitted she had even loftier ambitions but just ran out of gas at the end.
“I am quite disappointed to be honest. I was hoping for a top five result here but I am proud of how I raced. I was brave. I took chances,” the young Wicklow woman said. “I gave everything there. The last few laps, I was in so much pain. I had a really bad pain in my stomach. I really gave everything to put my best foot forward.”
Gillespie was 15th in the first element – the 30-lap 7.5km Scratch Race – but made a sensational start to the second ‘Tempo’ race, by lapping the entire field to pick up 20 points, which, added to an intermediate sprint victory, won her 24 points and the overall race.
That courage paid huge dividends as her Tempo victory leapfrogged her from 15th to sixth place overall.
That courage paid huge dividends as her Tempo victory leapfrogged her from 15th to sixth place overall.
Finishing ninth in the third ‘Elimination’ event then moved her to fifth overall, just 20 points adrift of the Canadian who was lying in the bronze medal position.
The final Points race – a gruelling 80-lap battle with points for intermediate sprints every 10 laps and more 20-point bonuses available for lapping the field – was typically frantic and full of attacks.
Gillespie put herself in a brilliant position halfway through it, lapping the field again for another 20-point bonus to move into fourth place on 99 points, just three off the bronze medal.
Gillespie put herself in a brilliant position halfway through it, lapping the field again for another 20-point bonus to move into fourth place on 99 points, just three off the bronze medal.
But as more and more riders continued to attack the effort finally caught up with her and that was her final total; 26 points off what eventually clinched bronze.
“I made a big mistake at the start by getting such an average result in the Scratch race,” Gillespie explained. “But there’s lots to improve on, lots of positives and negatives. I’m looking forward to learning from it.
“I think everyone here, except maybe four girls, have medals at World Championships, European Championships and Olympics so it’s really cool to be a part of it and I can do better in four years.”
Her individual performance capped a brilliant Olympic debut as she was also part of the Irish team that finished ninth in Team Pursuit and 11th in the Madison.
Asked to summarise it all she said: “It’s been a really good learning experience and just phenomenal seeing all the other athletes in other sports doing well. Ireland is a small nation but we’re doing everyone so proud and it’s really cool to be a part of it. I’m excited for more to be sure!”
CLOSING CEREMONY
The Closing Ceremony of these Games gets underway at 8pm tonight (live on RTÉ 2) with Olympic medallists Daniel Wiffen and Mona McSharry the Flagbearers leading the Irish team.
History making Wiffen and McSharry will proudly lead the Irish delegation into the Stade de France dressed head to toe in their custom Laura Weber designed Team Ireland suitings. The colours of the tricolour feature in the green jacket they will wear that was inspired by the tracksuit top Sonia O’Sullivan wore when receiving her medal in Sydney 2000.
The unique strapping detail on the green jacket visually creates a five-point start around the torso, and if the athlete is wearing a medal around their neck it will create a sixth point to the star; an additional flourish to highlight such an achievement.
The same Artistic Director that oversaw the unique Opening Ceremony along the River Seine; Thomas Jolly, is at the helm for the Closing with most of the details closely guarded but the theme is ‘Records’.
The iconic 80,000 seater Stade de France is set to be transformed into a gigantic concert hall on the night with dancers, performers and circus acrobats performing alongside world famous singers, with part of the show taking place in the air accompanied by spectacular lighting effects, concluding with a handover to LA 2028.
RESULTS DAY 16 – SATURDAY 10TH AUGUST 2024
Athletics, Women’s Marathon, Fionnuala McCormack, 28th overall in 2:30.12 SB
Track Cycling, Women’s Omnium, Scratch race, Lara Gillespie, 15th (12 points)
Track Cycling, Women’s Omnium, Tempo Race, Lara Gillespie, 1st (40 points)
Track Cycling, Women’s Omnium, Elimination Race, Lara Gillespie, 9th (24 points)
Track Cycling, Women’s Omnium, Points Race, Lara Gillespie, 10th (23 points), Finished 10th overall on 99 points)