Paris 2024: Irish pursuit cyclists pipped in qualifying

The Irish women's track cycling pursuit team have out of the Olympic Games despite setting a new national record with a time of 4:12.447.

The top eight of the ten teams competing in the event qualify for the next round, but the quartet of Lara Gillespie, Mia Griffin, Alice Sharpe and Kelly Murphy marginally missed out on a place.

They were pipped by the Canadian team to eighth spot by just 0.242 of a second.

Simply making it to Paris was a significant moment for Ireland, the only nation competing here that does not have a velodrome on home soil.

We need your consent to load this comcast-player content We use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences

Ireland, who were the second team out on track in the velodrome, were slightly slower than the Japanese team through the first 2km of their ride.

In the back half of the race, they upped their pace and beat the Japanese, knocking a few seconds off the national record.

The Irish and Canadian teams are considered to be on a par with one another meaning Ireland were always likely to have to post a better time than the Canadians to progress.

However, it was not to be as Canada edged under the Irish time to progress.

We need your consent to load this comcast-player content We use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences

Elsewhere, New Zealand laid down a marker as they came close to breaking the world record with a time of 4:04.679 to finish first.

That was just 0.437 seconds off