Ireland track cyclist David O'Loughlin was staying positive despite the disappointing nature of his exit from the Olympic men's 4-kilometre Individual Pursuit competition today.
Had O'Loughlin gone close to or bettered his national record of 4 minutes, 20.91 seconds, he would have comfortably made it through the qualifying phase at the Laoshan Velodrome.
But the Cong, County Mayo native, having made a strong start, tied up over the final laps of his heat against Australian legend Bradley McGee and finished in a time of 4:26.102.
Neither O'Loughlin or McGee progressed to the first round. Britain's Bradley Wiggins, the defending Olympic champion, topped the eight-man qualifying list by setting a new Olympic record of 4:15.031.
Speaking afterwards, the former Irish elite road race champion was at a loss to explain why he had struggled to nail a fast time.
‘I don't know, I'm very disappointed. In training I've been doing really well and have been significantly faster than today consistently.
‘I don't have the answers right now as to what wrong today,’ he conceded.
‘But I have to keep positive. This time two years ago, I'd never even ridden a track bike.
‘I hadn't been in a Velodrome so I'm staying positive because the evidence is there that there is potential.’
That is certainly the case as O'Loughlin, world-ranked 11th before the Olympics, was seen as a dark horse by many of his competitors and their coaches in Beijing.
Ireland's cycling interest in the Beijing Games will continue tomorrow week (August 23) when Wicklow's Robin Seymour goes in the men's mountain bike event at Laoshan.
