Sport

Martin to join Earley for Atlanta challenge

ALASTAIR MARTIN has been confirmed as the fourth member of the Irish squad for the Olympic Games at Atlanta in July

By JIM MCARDLE
Fri May 03 1996 - 01:00

ALASTAIR MARTIN has been confirmed as the fourth member of the Irish squad for the Olympic Games at Atlanta in July. Martin (31), of the Ards club, will accompany Martin Earley, who will be 34 in June, in the new event on the Olympic programme, the mountain bike race, on Tuesday, July 30th.

Earley earned Ireland the right to have two representatives in Atlanta by finishing 27th in the World championship at Kirchzarten in Germany last year. And although Martin, who was 72nd, was provisionally selected, he had to contend with a challenge this season from Robin Seymour, whose chance in the World championship was ruined when his chain broke.

In the World Cup mountain bike series this season Seymour was 58th at Lisbon, with Martin 81st. And although Seymour was 77th at Houffalize in Belgium and 66th at St Wendel in Germany, with Martin a non finisher after mechanical trouble and a puncture, the national team director Alasdair MacLennan did not regard Seymour's performances as good enough to displace Martin.

Philip Collins and Declan Lonergan have qualified for the 4,000 metres pursuit and the 50 kilometre points race on the track at Atlanta on July 24th and 28th.

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Collins is doing trials on the track in Manchester over the weekend before he goes to the World Cup track events at Athens on Sunday week and at Milan on May 19th.

Lonergan, based in America, competed in the World Cup pursuit and points race at Cali in Colombia, then won the points race at Havana, so he has also qualified for the World championship on the track in Manchester after the Olympics. The Waterford man is now in the Tour Du Pont in America with his new Australian Giant team.

Pat Clarke has assembled a line up of 150 for the 40th, Tour of Ulster, which was switched from its usual Easter slot to this weekend, and there should be keen racing with stages of 75 miles tomorrow, 60 miles followed by a 7.6 mile evening time trial on Sunday and 70 miles on Monday.

With Irish teams in action in France and the Tour of Lancashire, most of the top men miss the action at Enniskillen - Paul Griffin, David Peelo, Tommy, Evans, Michael O'Reilly, Barry Monaghan and Shane Baker are on duty in the Lancashire tour.

. However, with none of the visiting teams likely to dominate and some promising juniors out, to enhance their reputations against the rest of the home based seniors, it should be interesting competition. Alastair Martin tried to get a late entry in this week but, surprisingly, Clarke has been unable to accommodate him.

Stage one tomorrow gets under way from Lisnaskea at noon with the finish in Enniskillen, which is the base for the other stages.

Sunday morning's 60 miles is timed for 11 o'clock, with first off in the time trial at 5.15pm. The final stage of 70 miles is on Monday, 11.0.

Also listed for Sunday are the Cork club's Whitechurch Grand Prix (12.30), the Wexford Wheelers Viking Festival race at Ferrybank (2.0) and Bohermeen have their usual full programme for the Waller Cup events (2.0). There are under 12, 14 and 16 races at Bohermeen at noon. An additional interesting experiment is a series of grass track races for the same age group in Dundalk, 3.0.

. Germany have a team in the FBD Milk Ras again, headed by Wolfgang Oschwald, winner of the final stage in Swords last year. Also returning to the nine day promotion from May 18th, to 26th is John Paul Furus, silver medallist in the 1993 World junior championship. He disappointed in the Ras last year when he was, only 38th overall. With them will be Allan Grubi and Jeff Stubert.