Eoghan Clifford along with the women’s tandem of KatieGeorge Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal have become Paralympic Champions in the Time Trials in Rio. Clifford led the Men’s C3 30km Time Trial from start to finish, an event he has dominated since competing in Paralympic sport in 2014.
In the Women’s B Tandem Dunlevy and McCrystal finished half a minute ahead of all their opposition to win their Paralympic title. In addition to these two medals, Colin Lynch also secured silver earlier in the day in the Men’s C2 Time Trial. Also in action were the men’s tandems of Damien Vereker and Sean Hahessy and Peter Ryan with pilot Marcin Mizgajski who finished 6th and 17th respectively in the Men’s B Tandem Time Trial.
In the Men’s C3 Time Trial Clifford was always the favourite for the title having won two world titles in this event since 2014. “Today I was very determined and really disciplined during the ride,” he said. “I kept my position really well. I must say I was a bit angry today, I was not happy with my result earlier in the week [Bronze in the Pursuit] and I really wanted to prove that I’m a better rider than that.”
“In the Time Trial, apart from a World Cup in Bilbao where I had a very bad mechanical, I’ve never lost a Time Trial in Paracycling. I didn’t want to break that record now.”
Dunlevy and McCrystal were delighted with their win. “That’s the first time I’ve heard that, Paralympic champions,” said Dunlevy. “Sounds nice, I’ve been dreaming that for a long time, dreaming of that for the last four years since London. We’re over the moon, ecstatic, I can’t describe how I feel.”
When asked if they knew if they were leading McCrystal said: “I had Neill [coach] in my ear so he gave me 11 seconds at halfway. Sometimes he was in and out and I tried to tell her [Dunlevy] but the words did not come out.”
45 year old Lynch is a second time Paralympian and won his first Paralympic medal yesterday, coming just 19 seconds behind Canada’s Tristen Chernove in the 20km race against the clock, and 15 seconds ahead of Guihua Liang, who won gold in the Individual Pursuit on the track last week. The flat course suited Ireland’s powerful rider, who held second place throughout the race, finishing in a time of 28.02.25.
“It’s something I’ve worked at now for four years, it’s an absolute dream to finally achieve the one thing that I didn’t have in the closet, a Paralympic medal,” said Lynch.
“I came here with the express desire to win the gold medal and I raced against the Canadian earlier in the year, it was really close so I was trying to figure out how I can get those seconds back and I made some changes to everything to try to squeeze it out but on the day he was the better rider.”
“We’ve known about this course for months, as soon as I saw it was flat and untechnical, I knew it suits my abilities perfectly. I may not have as much power as the other riders, but my aerodynamics are far superior. The one thing I wanted more than anything else in my career was a Paralympic medal, so I’ve come away with that.”
“Because winning a Paralympic medal is a chance you get only every four years I think once it’s hanging around my neck I’ll think this is the best achievement to date.”
Declan Slevin finished 11th in the Men’s H3 Time Trial in Rio. The first time Paralympian held 11th place throughout the 20km course that was won by Vittorio Podesta (ITA), Walter Ablinger (AUT) won silver and Charles Moreau (CAN) took bronze.
“It was a good performance; I maintained my watts throughout it. When I heard Colin came in second it was a great boost, all you can do is push out as hard as you can and hopefully get the watts. The conditions were unbelievable on the way back, I didn’t realise it was that strong until I turned on the bend. IT was flat enough apart from the wind so it was all just power, power, the strong guy was always going to win it; the guy with the bigger arms was always going to win it.”
Ciara Staunton finished the WH1-3 Time Trial in 11th position. The H2 handcyclist from Wicklow made her Paralympic debut in an event that combined three different classes of disability, with time allowances factored into the results giving her a time of 45 min 28.69 seconds. The Paralympic title was won by GB’s Darke, Dana from USA was silver and Porcellato from Italy took bronze.
“It went well, I got a PB, I’m not overly happy – we always like to be hard on ourselves. I was getting a good pace on the way out but the headwind was strong on the way back. Me and Declan felt like our event was forever coming around, it was nice to finally get out and take part properly in our event.”
“The winds have changed over the last few days, it was even hard to feel what direction it was coming in between the sea and land, they’re very changeable here, but we’re all in the same boat. I knew a medal was slim here, I’m definitely aiming for Tokyo, that’s the next step.”
Damien Vereker and pilot Sean Hahessy finished the Men’s B Tandem in 6th place, and Peter Ryan and Marcin Mizgajski finished 17th in the tough 30km race against the clock.
“The first five minutes were pretty easy, probably the best five minutes of the race,” said Hahessy while Damien Vereker said: “We never worry about other people when we go into a race, concentrate on how I’m going.”
Ryan and Mizgajski were slightly more upbeat, having received a late call onto the team, and described how they pushed themselves to the limit. Ryan said “we went out there, had a little chat beforehand and the two of us said “look it leave it out there, when it’s all done wipe the spit off your face and smile.” That’s exactly how I feel.”
Mizgajski is looking forward to the Road Race this weekend adding “We can do anything here (in the Road Race). People don’t know us here, they might let us go, and if they let us go they might be surprised.”
Fantastic stuff