That’s how we roll: Mark Rohan checks out his gold medal bounty
Double World Champion Mark Rohan has come through the hype and pressure of his Paralympic build-up to take gold in his time trial event based in and around the Brands Hatch motor racing circuit.
On a fantastic day during which our cyclists very much emerged as the stars of Team Ireland, James Brown and pilot Damien Shaw also took a TT bronze medal. And adding to a fantastic day, silver medallists from the velodrome last week Catherine Walsh and her pilot Fran Meehan also grabbed a bronze and now take home two medals from these Games.
But there was no doubting the star of the day was Rohan.
He has emerged as one of the most high profile of any of the members of Team Ireland across all sports in recent years. And having landed a sponsorship deal with Sky Sports, not to mention two world titles last year, he went into these Games with massive expectations weighing on him.
Advertisement
However, he has clearly handled the pressure well today, coming home in the men’s individual H1 TT at the head of the leader board in a time of 35:41.54.
The former Westmeath footballer did not have it all his own way and was in fact pushed quite close by his Israeli rival Koby Lion, who was just 11 seconds slower.
The Austrian Wolfgang Schattauer was third, some 2:21 down on the gold medallist Irishman.
Rohan implied afterwards that he was aware of the level of expectation from people back home and sounded relieved to have delivered on the biggest stage.
“I am delighted with my result, there was a lot of pressure on me to perform today,” he said.
“I don’t know how to describe it; it’s just an amazing feeling. I’m exhausted.”
Up first this afternoon was the individual B TT tandem pairing of Brown and Shaw, who were taking to the road after narrowly missing out on a pursuit bronze on the velodrome in recent days.
They posted a very quick time of 31:13.00, which was only beaten by the gold medal winners Spain (30:48.25) and the silver medallists Italy (30:50.41).
Related News
Brown said afterwards he felt some changes to their bike set-up had really paid dividends.
“We are riding a new bike, we opted for power rather than aerodynamics, and it really seems to have paid off.”
The pair were perhaps more heavily tipped to medal on the track, so today’s ride was a massive result for them especially having been beaten in a bronze medal ride off on the track.
With that bronze medal in the bag today - Ireland’s second cycling podium of London 2012 - all eyes turned to that pairing who had won the first medal last week namely Catherine Walsh and Fran Meehan. And they did not disappoint.
Their time of 35:29.56 was very close to those two pairings that went faster to take the gold and silver, with New Zealand just 22 seconds faster in second and the winners Holland just 27 seconds quicker.
Similarly, the time gaps back to the second Irish tandem in the race, Katie George Dunlevy and Sandra Fitzgerald, were 5th just 19 seconds adrift of the their bronze medallist compatriots.
After the race, Meehan cited the team spirit in the Irish cycling camp as a major factor in her and Walsh securing two medals.
“We have a really strong team, and I think that’s what has moved us on, we support each other, share our advice, and it means we all improve.”
Earlier in the day Cathal Miller, who had been disappointed with his performance in the 4km individual C5 track pursuit at the weekend, was 11th in his C5 TT but was pleased with his time of 35:14.
“I’m really happy with that. That’s my best ride of the year from a TT perspective.”
Enda Smyth finished 14th in the C3 TT in 27:30 after having a very good outing on the track at these Games when he smashed his previous bests. He was stoical after his race today in light of the toll his recent broken elbow had taken on him.
"I can't blame the bike, after doing personal bests during the week on the track, but the relentless bumps and turns on the road really took their toll on me today.”
Topics
