Lara Gillespie 13th in omnium at European Championships

Lara Gillespie has finished 13th in the omnium at the UEC Track European Championships in Switzerland.

Gillespie competed in four races across the third day of competition in Grenchen – a scratch race, a tempo race, an elimination race and a points race.

The 21-year-old started her day with a 13th-place finish in the scratch race. She followed this up with a top-10 finish in the tempo race which moved her up to 12th place overall in the standings with two events still to go.

Heading into the final race of the omnium, Gillespie sat on 52 points after a 15th-place finish in the elimination race. The Enniskerry rider rode well in the high-paced points race, securing a point in the opening sprint, but was unable to add anymore points.

Conor Rowley kicked off the day for Ireland in the sprint qualifying and his time of 10.091 seconds saw him finish 17th to progress to the next round.

Rowley faced Dominik Topinka of Czech Republic, but narrowly missed out in the match sprint, finishing 0.013 behind Topinka.

JB Murphy was also in action in the scratch race. The 2021 European bronze medallist put in a huge effort, committing to an early attack which saw him come within a third of a lap of catching the back of the bunch.

This sparked a reaction at the front as riders upped the pace, eventually reeling him back in.

As the race progressed and the pace quickened, many riders retired early from the race. Murphy was among eight non-finishers.