LAST UPDATE | 11 Jan

IRELAND MISSED OUT on the medals as they finished fourth in the women’s team pursuit at the Track Cycling European Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

The Irish quartet of Lara Gillespie, Mia Griffin, Kelly Murphy and Alice Sharpe lined up for the bronze medal race on Thursday evening, but faced stiff opposition in a German team which included two of the quartet which won gold and set a new world record at the Tokyo Olympics. 

Germany led from the off, and Ireland’s best efforts to keep in touch saw them trail by just over a second at the half-way mark in the 4km race.

From there Ireland started to fade while Germany maintained a consistent pace through to the line, stretching their advantage to win bronze in a time of 4:14.768.

Ireland finished almost seven seconds adrift in 4:21.539, fractionally slower than their time set in the first round against Switzerland on Wednesday.

Having picked up some valuable world ranking points in their bid for Olympic qualification, Ireland will now turn their attention towards next month’s Nations Cup event in Adelaide.

In the women’s team pursuit gold medal race, Italy (4:12.551) were crowned European champions as they beat Great Britain (4:15.950) by over three seconds.

Ireland’s Mia Griffin finished 10th in the 10km scratch race when she returned to the track later on Thursday evening.