Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal have won a bronze medal in the Women’s B Tandem 3km Individual Pursuit at the at the UCI 2018 Para-cycling Track World Championships, beating New Zealand into fourth place.

After qualifying for the Bronze medal ride off earlier yesterday, the Irish duo started the 3km race against the clock as favourites, having qualified with a 5 second advantage over New Zealand. In the medal ride off they bettered their time by 2.5 seconds, clocking 3.34.23 on the line. Gold went to Great Britain, leaving the Belgians to settle for silver.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” Dunlevy said after the race, “we really wanted that bronze medal after the ride this morning. We were positive that New Zealand would up their game; we had to as well.”

Photo: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

While the Irish pair had qualified comfortably for the bronze medal final, they were determined to better their performance from earlier in the day. After the first qualifying round they made a few adjustments to the bike before bettering their time by 2.5 seconds, with a faster time than eventual silver medallists Belgium.

“We had to be realistic coming into this event after limited track time which was not enough to come in and beat the best – which on the day was the brits. But we gave it our all.

“After the first ride we went home and spoke to our coach Neill Delahaye, and we made certain adjustments to the bike. We got on it for the second ride; we just did what I would safely say was the best ride that we have done. We are both very proud of ourselves and are delighted to be coming home with the bronze medal.”

“We really wanted it,” added Dunlevy, “we worked incredibly hard to get that medal, and we are absolutely thrilled.”

Photo: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com

Earlier Colin Lynch finished 15th in the MC2 1km Time Trial with a time of 1.26.577 and Peter Ryan and Sean Hahessy finished 8th in the M B Tandem 4km Individual Pursuit, with a time of 4.25.505. Lynch also competed in the MC2 Scratch qualifiers but will not progress to the MC1-3 Finals on Sunday.

Today Dunlevy and McCrystal turn their attention to the 1km Time Trial, with both male tandems competing in the men’s event. Sprint specialists Martin Gordon and Eamonn Byrne will be kick starting their world championship campaign with the 1km race, along with Ryan and Hahessy. Ronan Grimes competes in the MC4 Individual Pursuit.

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