Commonwealth Games Day 4
By Nigel Ringland in Delhi
Northern Ireland are on the medal table at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi after the men’s 4000m team pursuit quartet cruised past India with half the distance still remaining in the race for the bronze medal.
SINI athletes Martyn Irvine, David McCann, Sean Downey and Philip Lavery produced an outstanding performance to clinch only the second track cycling medal for the province in the history of the Commonwealth Games following on from Alastair Irvine’s bronze in the points race in Auckland in 1990.
The result was never really in doubt; in qualifying there had been a nine second difference between the two countries and it was clear from the first lap that the host nation were no match. The catch was inevitable and it came quickly.
For McCann it was a particularly sweet moment. The 37 year old from Dunmurry is at his fifth Games and has come close to a medal before finishing fifth in the road time trial in Melbourne four years ago.
Afterwards he said, “I thought India would raise their game for the final and give us a hard race but we were going way quicker than yesterday, it was actually hard to slow down. It’s great for me coming towards the end of my career to win a medal. I knew I had it in me but it never quite happened in other Games and it’s also great for some of the young guys to start of their career on such a high note.”
McCann has also had quite an interesting few days.
“I finished the world championship road race in Geelong in Australia on Sunday and it was hard to recover from that race which took nearly seven hours. I arrived here yesterday, found that my luggage and bike had been lost and luckily I carried my cycling shoes and helmet on the plane just in case so I borrowed some kit and a bike and jumped on the track last night. I think I’ll collapse at some time over the next couple of days.”
It was also a big moment for the three other cyclists.
18 year-old Downey was only drafted into the squad two weeks ago and now he’s a Commonwealth medallist.
“It was a surprise to get into the team and now it’s a surprise to get this medal but good things happen when you work as a team. We did put this together quickly, the qualifying was like our trial but we are all used to doing it at national level.”
The only thing they had to guard against was complacency. Lavery, 19, admitted, “We knew we had the time to beat them but you can never count on anything so we were nervous coming in but we were focused and never took anything for granted. We rode to our schedule, actually a little bit faster than we had planned and we caught them earlier than we thought and once we did that we decided that was all we needed to do, no need to ride on for a time.”
With Heather Wilson’s fifth place in the women’s points race and thirteenth in the scratch and with Wendy Houvenaghel going for gold this morning the cycling team are on a high but the success comes with a lot of support.
“It’s brilliant to get it done. Nerves would have been my Achilles heel in the past but I’ve received a lot of help from the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland and they’ve kept me right and put a lot of work into me, kept me away from the chocolate biscuits!” explained Irvine.
Now the foursome can show off their medals to the rest of the team, hopefully inspiring those with prospects over the next week to go out and do the same.
McCann added, “It’s a very fine line between tenth and a medal in some events but hopefully this will get the ball rolling and give the rest of the team some self-belief.”
Ciara Mageean showed no fear of running in her first senior championships as she produced a typically gutsy display to make tonight’s final of the women’s 1500m.
As the temperatures inside the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium soared close to forty degrees in conditions the 18 year-old likened to a “sauna” she finished fifth in her heat in a time of 4:12.11with a battling display down the home straight.
She had to wait for the second heat and watched as team mate Kelly McNiece led the field through 1000m but in a slower time.
The Lisburn athlete faded in the closing stages to finish 6th in 4:18.07 and miss out on the final but it meant that Mageean took the first of the fastest loser places, in fact the fifth quickest time overall.
“It was roasting out there, it’s so hot and so humid but you just try and remember it’s the same for the all the athletes, most of us aren’t used to it. It was a tough race and hard to catch your breath but I pulled through in the end,” she said.
The final tomorrow night will be a big occasion for Mageean, who clinched silver at the World Junior Championships over the summer, but this is a big step up.
“I’m going to be really nervous but my aim was to make the final and now its anybodies race. It’s going to be tough with all those senior athletes and it looked very easy for them but I’m looking forward to it and I’m just going to try hard and see how far up the field I can finish and make everyone at home very proud.”
In the evening session SINI athlete Amy Foster was disappointed not to claim the personal best she really wanted in the semi-finals of the 100m.
She equaled her season’s best of 11.61 seconds in finishing fifth just two-hundredths of a second outside that PB.
“I was really hoping that when 11.55 came up for fourth place that I’d get it but it’s typical of my year to equal my season’s best, that’s just the way things have gone but 11.61, semi-final, can’t complain,” said the Ards sprinter.
Delhi is a learning curve for Foster and 400m runner Joanna Mills. The 17 year-old from Ballyclare finished 8th in the semi-final in 55.68.
“It’s been a great experience, it’s certainly a lot different coming to a senior championships because I’m still young so it’s a really good experience that will help me in the future.”
Olympic bronze medalist and European champion and SINI athlete Paddy Barnes came through a tough opening light flyweight bout with Scotland's Iain Butcher winning 4-2 on points.
The fighter himself wasn’t impressed with his own performance.
"It was going well in the first round and I was two points up. I switched off just a bit but was still winning. He caught a few stupid shots and I tucked up and came back to steal the fight and take the win.”
He added, "I'm fighting the Australian next and I don't know a thing about him. I'm not really bothered. I just put pressure on myself to perform."
The Aussie in question Andrew Moloney who had a comfortable ride into the quarter-finals when his opponent withdrew with a shoulder injury suffered just 75 seconds into the fight.
If Barnes needed any more incentive, Moloney’s older brother, by just one minute, Jason, beat Michael Conlon at flyweight yesterday on the count back system after the two boxers had battled to a 10-10 draw.
The 19 year-old twins took up boxing five years ago as a way of staying fit for Aussie Rules Football.
None of that will matter to Barnes who has his eyes firmly set on gold.
"It was a tough fight and he made it hard for me but it was all about getting the first fight out of my system. I need to improve if I'm going to take gold."
Conlon, on the other hand was close to tears about the decision against the older Moloney after he had fought his way back into the contest.
“I thought I did more than enough to win. I don’t know how the other guy scored ten points. The scoring was terrible. I'm going to come back harder, faster and stronger because of this,” said the 18 year-old.
Later today Mark O’Hara faces his second fight of the week with a last sixteen bout at lightweight against Canadian Alex Rynn.
At welterweight Paddy Gallagher is also back in the ring with an opponent from Bangladesh, Suruz Bangali.
And Eamonn O’Kane will need to be at his best with the middleweight taking on Kiwi Nathon McEwen.
In the pool Sport Northern Ireland PDC athletes Michael Dawson, Chelsey Wilson and Sycerika McMahon all made semi-finals. Dawson finished 10th overall in the 50m breaststroke while Wilson was 14th in the 50m backstroke and McMahon was 14th in the 100m breaststroke.
