Miller was not happy with his performance in London, and perhaps overly self critical
Irish pursuit rider Cathal Miller has expressed his disappointment after he failed to qualify for the 4km individual C5 pursuit final yesterday, clocking a time of 4:49.237 on the London Velodrome.
Miller, who carried the flag for Team Ireland at the Paralympic Games opening ceremony last weekend, was caught and passed by British rider Jon-Allan Butterworth in the qualifiers.
The Irishman’s time left him 8th of the 12-man field, some way off the time needed to get into the top four and secure a medal ride off.
He was understandably disappointed after his ride, and perhaps judged his own performance on the harsh side. However, his self critical view is indicative of a real will to win medals in this Ireland team.
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“The wheels came off the wagon when Butterworth passed me, I feel I let everyone down,” he said.
However, Butterworth’s time was the second fastest of the field and secured him a place in the gold medal ride off. And though he later lost that and had to settle for silver, there was certainly no shame for Miller in having been beaten by the eventual silver medallist.
Also in action yesterday were the tandem pairing of James Brown and Damien Shaw, though in the 1km TT which is not their priority event. They nonetheless posted a time of 1:07.979 which is a new national record over the distance.
They add that record to the new national mark they set last Thursday when qualifying for the bronze medal ride off in the individual pursuit B, though they were later beaten for that medal by Spain.
The World Championships individual pursuit B silver medallists in LA back in February, both Brown and Shaw said they were content with their performance in yesterday’s 1km TT.
“We are happy with our performance, our main event is the 4km pursuit,” said Brown.
“If we concentrated on every event there would be something wrong. We got a PB, you can’t ask for much more.”
Said Shaw: “It was great experience racing in front of the crowd again, the atmosphere here is brilliant.”
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