IRELAND’S LARA GILLESPIE and Alice Sharpe have finished 11th in the final of the Women’s Madison at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Italian duo Vittoria Guazzini and Chiara Consonni won gold after clocking 37 points at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome; Great Britain took silver with 31 points; and Netherlands secured bronze in 28 points.

Gillespie and Sharpe were 11th of 15 teams, claiming three points in the latter stages. Canada did not finish.

There was a mixed reaction to the performance: Result-wise, it was an obvious improvement on Ireland’s showing at Tokyo 2020 as Emily Kay and Shannon McCurley failed to finish, but the RTÉ panel said it was “disappointing”.

The Irish duo echoed that sentiment afterwards.

“It was really full on from the start,” Gillespie reflected. “We didn’t panic but we did use a lot of energy getting into positioning at the start but then we held our own and calmed down and did score a few points at the end, in the last 20 laps the effort really started to kick in.

“A little bit disappointed with that but it is an Olympic final at the end of the day and 11th place is pretty savage. It took a lot to even qualify and get to the Games so we can be proud of the effort and look forward to the next time.”

“There’s always a strategy involved with the Madison but, because the race is so chaotic and there’s so many teams doing different things, you need to adapt and overcome during the race,” Sharpe added.

“Yes, it went to plan but I think we would have liked to score a few more points but, as she said, it’s an Olympic final and I don’t think we can be too disappointed.”

The Women’s Madison is 120 laps — 30km — with a sprint every 10 laps.

Gillespie and Sharpe also featured in the Team Pursuit on Tuesday, with the former returning to action in the Omnium on Sunday.