Lara Gillespie helped Team Ireland leave Paris 2024 on a high with a top-10 finish in the track cycling omnium event at the 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.
Gillespie was a European U23 champion in Omnium and Points last year but was unable to break into the podium places this time around.
Gillespie, along with Alice Sharpe, appeared on Friday’s Madison Olympic final, finishing 11th with three points.
This was Team Ireland’s last competition at these Olympic games in action but Gillespie remained utterly focused on the final day and admitted she had higher ambitions but in the end, it was just out of reach.
“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.
The Wicklow woman’s Tempo victory leapfrogged her from 15th to sixth place overall going into the third leg of the omnium.
Finishing ninth in the third ‘Elimination’ event then moved her to fifth overall, just 20 points adrift of the Canadian Maggie Coles-Lyster, 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 frantic and full of attacks, as this type of race usually is.
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 attacks wore the Irish cyclist down she finished 26 points off Kiwi Ally Wollaston, who eventually clinched bronze with 125 points.
“I made a big mistake at the start by getting such an average result in the Scratch race,” said Gillespie.
“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.”
This event capped off a busy Olympic debut for Gillespie as she was also part of the Irish team that finished ninth in Team Pursuit and 11th in the Madison.
“It’s been a really good learning experience and just phenomenal seeing all the other athletes in other sports doing well,” said Gillespie as Team Ireland’s involvement in these games came to a close.
“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!”
