Over the weekend the Irish Paracycling National Team were flying the flag in style at the World Track Championships in LA. The experienced team, under the guidance and instruction of Denis Toomey, Brian Nugent and Gerry Beggs, has gone from strength to strength in recent years - resulting in a team that holds one of Ireland's biggest hope for Gold Medals this summer at Paralympic Games! Press Releases Below in Reverse Order:
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Irish Squad finish the Paracycling Track World Championships in style when Walsh and Meehan take the Bronze Medal in Tandem Sprint.
The Irish spirit really shined through on todays last day of the 2012 UCI Paracycling Track World Championships in Carson L.A. In this morning’s Sprint qualification round Irish Pursuit World Champions set a new Irish Record of 12.259 to leave them in 4th place and secured the last available place in this afternoon’s Match Sprint finals.
Male tandem pairing of Andrew Fitzgerald and Con Collis put in a good performance to record a time of 11.631 which left them in 17th place.
The Irish Team Sprint squad of Colin Lynch, Enda Smyth and Cathal Miller finished just outside the top 10 taking 11th place in a New Irish Record time of 56.840.
In this afternoon’s Tandem Sprint Semi- finals the Irish girls were drawn against favourites GB in the first two heats. Catherine and Fran rode very shrewdly but the experience of the British duo shone through and they took both heats. In the other Semi-final Australia beat Germany which meant we were going to have to beat Germany in the best of 3 heats to secure the Bronze Medal.
Tactics were agreed with Coach Brian Nugent and the plan was to try and lead out and then maintain pressure on the straights to prevent them passing. This worked a treat and in spite of constant pressure the Germans were unable to come around the girls and we had the first heat in the bag.
Similar tactics were employed in the second heat and by the time the bell was sounded we had broken the Germans and pulled away to win comfortably. A big surprise for Ireland to win a Sprint Medal but great credit to the guts and determination of the two girls to pull another medal out the bag and crown the best ever Track World Championships performance by any Irish Squad where Ireland finished 7th in the medal tally out of 31 countries.
We will know in about 2 weeks what our final Country Ranking Point total accumulation for London Paralympic Games qualification will be, but the tremendous performances by all the squad will surely mean that we will surpass our target and secure 4 male slots and 2 female slots. We can certainly be confident of bringing home Ireland’s first ever cycling medals from the Paralympic Games when you take into consideration that we now 5 current World Championship titles and one silver and two bronze World Championship finishers. I think any sport in Ireland will be hard pushed to match that. So great praise to the athletes, support staff, our Paracycling sponsors An Post and Focus Consulting and other supporters, the Irish Sports Council, Cycling Ireland and Paralympics Ireland. I hope, like me, you are all very proud of the level we have reached in a relatively short number of years.
Onwards and Upwards!!
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3 Irish cyclists were in action today on Day 3 of the 2012 Paracycling Track World Championships in Carson L.A. Newly crowned 3km Pursuit World Champion Colin Lynch was first off in the C2 1km Time Trial where in spite of putting in 2 massif efforts yesterday he still manage to set a New Irish Record of 1:19.245 which was good enough to give him 4th place overall.
In this afternoon’s session Enda Smyth was up first in the C3 category and finished in a very credible 7th place just outside his Irish Record in a time of 1:15.593. But for having a heavly strapped up wrist following a fall in training earlier in the week he would surly have set a PB and finished even further up the table.
The finial Irish rider Cathal Miller was next up in the C5 Category where he was sitting in 2nd place for most of the event after clocking a great 1:10.670 on what is a slow track. However the last four three riders just upped the pace and ended in a New World Record set by Jon-Allan Butterworth of GB in a time of 1:07.212 to take the Gold. China took the silver and Spain the Bronze. Cathal’s time left him in 6th place overall.
As all three riders finished in the Top 10 of their categories there will be the added bonus of Country Ranking Points to be gained for Ireland to help secure slots for the London Paralympic Games.
Tomorrow’s last day of competition sees the Female Tandem of Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan along with the Male Tandem of Andrew Fitzgerald and Con Collis compete in the Match Sprint Competition. Colin Lynch, Enda Smyth and Cathal Miller will combine to compete in the Team Sprint Competition. Whilst none of our squad would be considered sprint specialists we are sure they will keep the flag flying and continue to do us all proud. Whatever happens 2 Gold and 1 Silver Medal from a Track World Championships is certainly a historic achievement for a nation that does not possess an indoor Velodrome. Great credit to the athletes, to their coach Brian Nugent and all the support staff that have worked so hard to make this happen.
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Yet Another Rainbow Jersey for Ireland.
Day 2 of the 2012 Paracycling Track World Championships in Carson L.A. saw the Irish Paracycling squad secure yet another Rainbow Jersey for Ireland when Colin Lynch followed up on the success of the 3km Female Tandem Pursuit World Champions Catherine Walsh and her Pilot Francine Meehan yesterday by finishing in first place in this morning’s qualifications and then riding a terrific Final race to set a new Irish Record of 3:51.640 when beating the Chinese World Record Holder by six seconds in a great ride off for the Gold medal.
What makes the victory even more sensational was the fact that after the qualification rounds the Irish Management were advised that a Classification Protest was lodged against Colin so he had to go through a full classification review which thankfully confirmed him as a C2 athlete.
Other great results from today’s competition included a fifth place finish by Enda Smyth in the C3 3km Individual Pursuit where he set a new Irish Record of 3:52.622. Cathal Miller also finished in fifth place in the C5 Individual Pursuit just outside a ride off for a bronze medal in a time of 4:50.611 but he really deserved better as both the 3rd and 4th place finishers were given an unfair advantage when passed by their competitors they got a tow along to the finish.
In this afternoon’s session Irish tandem pairings competed in the 1km Individual Time Trial and in spite of giving everything in yesterday’s Pursuit competition went on to give credible performances all round. Katie-George Dunlevy and Pilot Sandra Fitzgerald set a PB time of 1:16.4147 to give them a 12th place finish. 3km Pursuit World Champions Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan finished 7th place in a time of 1:13.826.
Male tandem pairings of James Brown and Damien Shaw finished in 14th place in a time of 1:07.950 and were followed closely by Andy Fitzgerald and Con Collis in 17th place in a time of 1:08.233.
Tomorrow all three single bikes are back in action in the 1km Individual Pursuit Competition so no pressure to keep the medals coming!!