Mark Rohan in a Sky Sports promo shot: He’s hotly tipped for gold in London
Ireland has secured seven places for the London 2012 Paralympics after climbing to 11th in the UCI’s world nations' rankings.
The number of slots secured is a significant improvement on the last two Paralympic Games, when only one slot was secured for Athens 2004 and four slots going to Ireland for Beijing 2008.
While the events in which Ireland has qualified and the athletes travelling to London will not be confirmed until much closer to the Games, recent performances by the squad make it fairly clear who will be selected.
Stickybottle believes the likely team will be: world road race and TT hand cycling champion Mark Rohan; track pursuit and road TT champion Colin Lynch; world tandem pursuit champions Catherine Walsh and pilot Fran Meehan; worlds tandem pursuit silver medallists James Brown and pilot Damien Shaw.
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Also expected to be on the London 2012 team are some of the other Irish squad members from the recent track worlds in LA; Enda Smyth (1km TT and individual pursuit), Cathal Miller (1km TT and individual pursuit) and Katie George Dunlevy (1km TT tandem and pursuit tandem with pilot Sandra Fitzgerald).
National team manager Denis Toomey said Ireland was now a “small but great nation” in paracycling. He added the results at both the LA Track World Championships and UCI World Road Race Championships in Copenhagen had combined to lift Ireland in the nations’ world rankings and secure far more Paralympic slots than ever before.
Cycling Ireland chief executive Geoff Liffey welcomed the news of the allocations.
“The increase in secured slots from four to seven demonstrates the commitment and continued progress made by the athletes, team manager, coach and support staff over the past four years.”
The track team will now spend periods over the next five months until the Games at training camps in Majorca. The road riders preparation will revolve around the UCI Paracycling Road World Cup Series with races in Rome in May and Segovia in Spain in June. They will also compete in the National TT Championship in Clonmel.
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